It is a tree species found in parts of south Asia, typically occurring in the edges of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.

The underside of leaves is velvety white due to stellate hairs, contrasting with the bright green and glabrous upper surface.

The stipules are lateral and fall off, while the leaf also has a long petiole (4.5–10 cm) which is stout and swollen at the base, stellate tomentose along the length, and with two glands at the top.

The inflorescences are terminal, branched, panicles about 12–20 cm long, on stout peduncles, holding rusty tomentose buds and yellow or yellowish-white flowers.

[7] In northern India, Brandis notes the species is distributed in the outer ranges and valleys of the Sikkim Himalaya ascending to 3,000 feet (914 m), common in second growth forest.

The combination of high quantum use efficiency of photosynthetic system and relative growth rates under higher light conditions, similar in pattern to other pioneer species such as Macaranga peltata, indicate the early-successional nature of Mallotus tetracoccus.

[12] As a dioecious species, a male-biased flowering sex ratio (male: female = 1.73) was reported among trees in a 20 ha plot of tropical forest at Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan, south-west China.

[13] In tropical wet evergreen forests of the southern Western Ghats, India, the tree has been reported to be an edge or gap species whose fruits are consumed and seeds are dispersed by birds.

[15] The flowers and seeds of Mallotus tetracoccus are reported as consumed by lion-tailed macaques in a tropical rainforest fragment in the Anaimalai hills, India.