Cleistanthus malabarica Muell.-Arg.

Shrubs or small trees; branchlets brown or blackish, densely rufous or tawny-villous when young and glabrous at maturity. Leaves alternate, 4-13 x 2-4.5 cm, narrowly oblong-obovate to oblanceolate or sometimes cuneate-obovate, narrowed and acute, subacute or rounded at base, apiculate to caudate or acuminate at apex, chartaceous or thinly coriaceous, glabrous or rufous-villous or tawny-hirsute on midrib and lateral nerves above, scattered whitish or fulvous-pilose or hirsute on nerves beneath, otherwise glabrous beneath; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, slender, faint above, raised beneath, arcuate; petioles 1.5-5 x 1-2 mm, rufous or tawny-tomentellous or villous or hirsute; stipules 5-10 mm long, subulate, linear, linear-lanceolate to  filiform, villous to glabrous. Glomerules on main and lateral leafy, 4-15 cm long branches, few-flowered; bracts broadly ovate, 0.5 mm long, persistent. Male flowers: pedicels 4 x 0.8 mm, sparsely puberulous; calyx 7 mm across, glabrous; sepals narrowly subulate-acuminate or lanceolate, ca 4 x 1 mm; petals narrowly spatulate-obovate, ca 2 x 0.8 mm, slightly lobed at apex; disk shortly cupuliform; staminal column ca 1 mm long; filaments ca 0.5 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, 0.8 mm long; pistillode trifid. Female flowers: pedicels 0.5 -1 mm long, ochraceous-villous; calyx ca 4 x 5 mm, glabrous; sepals triangular or ovate-oblong, 3 x 1.5 mm; petals spathulate, 2 x 1 mm, entire, glabrous; disk copular, entire, villous along margins; ovary subglobose, 1-2 mm in diameter, densely and evanescently fulvous-villous; styles 1 mm long, free, shortly bifid, erect. Capsules somewhat depressed, 4-5 x 8-9 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous, pedicels 1-2 x ca 1.2 mm, puberulous to glabrous; seeds subglobose, 5 mm across.