Variable species, (shrub) small – medium-sized tree to 20 m high, bole fluted and to 30 cm Ø, with a wide-spreading crown of drooping branches. Rainforest, often in damp sites, swamp forest and beside streams. Leaves simple, alternate, clustered; blade obovate – oblanceolate, acuminate, long-cuneate at base, with short petiole; blade metallic below, with ± 8 pairs of laterals; stipules on young twigs persistent. See also PROTA database. Syn.: Pachystela brevipes/Pachystela pobeguineana/Synsepalum pobeguinianum.