Slender dioecious tree, ca 4-15 m tall, to ca 20 cm dbh, unbranched for much of its length; smaller branches long and drooping; most parts moderately to densely hirsute (especially dense on young parts), the upper blade surfaces, petals, and inner flower parts glabrous. Petioles 5 mm long; blades lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, narrowly acuminate, obtuse to rounded at base, 6-14 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide (larger in South America), glabrous above except on midrib. Staminate flowers in short axillary cymes, usually only one flower opening at a time; pubescence of branches, pedicels, and calyces crisp-villous; buds narrowly ovate; calyx campanulate, to 3.7 mm long, appressed-pubescent inside except near base, the lobes 6, irregular, triangular, extending one-third to one-half the way to base; corolla white, ca 1 cm long, lobed to near base, the lobes 6, somewhat imbricate, thick, 4 mm wide, with a longitudinal line of sparse pubescence somewhat off-center outside, this diminishing at about middle, the apex asymmetrical and recurved at anthesis; stamens ca 35-40, to 2.7 mm long; filaments less than 11 mm long, narrowed at apex, pubescent along inner side, the trichomes stiff, straight, translucent, extending entire length of connective; anthers apiculate at apex, the connective prolonged one-third to one-half the length of the thecae. Pistillate flowers in ca 5-flowered axillary cymes, subsessile or with pedicels to 5 mm long; corolla and calyx like staminate flowers; staminodia ca 6; ovary ovoid-conical, ca 4 mm wide and long; styles 4 or 5, ca 4 mm long, divergent, united only at base; locules 8 or 10; ovules 1 per locule. Berries subglobose, 8-celled, hispidulous, to 4 cm diam; seeds 8 or 10 or fewer by abortion, ca 20 mm long and 9 mm wide, ca 6 mm thick, black, the endosperm smooth; fruiting calyx scarcely accrescent. (Description of pistillate flowers and fruits taken from White, 1978.)