It is generally not more than 40 feet (12 meters) tall, with bark separated into scales by fissures across its surface.

Mature leaves are green, paler on their undersides, which have prominent brownish or reddish-brown hairs.

The species prefers swamps and coastal areas, particularly locations with moist, peat-rich soil.

The dull brown bark is typically no more than 0.25 inches (6.4 millimeters) thick, with fissures separating its surface into individual scales.

During the tree's first two seasons, it is covered with a layer of rust-colored tomentum, which is significantly reduced after that time and completely gone in two or three years.

[2] The leaves can be lanceolate or long-elliptic, medium to dark green on their uppersides, with paler undersides, which are covered in distinctive brownish hairs.

[4] The fruit is a small drupe (a single seed surrounded by flesh), oblong or rounded, and about 0.4 in (1 cm) long.