Tree or shrub 2-8 m tall, deciduous, unarmed. Branches erect or spreading with many reduced branchlets. Perulate winter buds ovoid, scales glabrous with ciliate margins. Young branchlets glabrous, green or reddish-brown. Leaf blade ovate-lanceolate To oblong, 2.5-9(-12) x 1-3 cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse, margin serrate with glandular teeth, glabrous on both surfaces, sometimes puberulous when young. Petiole 0.5-3 cm long with 2-4 glands at apex or at base of lamina, glabrous. Stipules narrowly triangular, 3-5 mm long, margin fimbriate sometimes with glandular teeth, caducous. Flowers solitary, often crowded along the branchlets, up to 4 cm in diameter, appearing beflore the leaves. Pedicels 3-5 mm long, elongating in fruit, glabrous. Hypanthium campanulate, 4-7 mm long, glabrous, base partially concealed within the bud scales. Sepals 3.5-6 mm long, ovate to obovate, apex obtuse, outside pubescent towards the margin. Petals white or pink, obovate, 12-20 x 7-15 mm, base shortly clawed, apex rounded or emarginate. Stamens ca. 30, unequal in length, filaments to 10 mm long. Ovary densely tomentose; style ca. 12 mm long, pubescent at base. Fruit a nuculaniurn, green, 3-4.3 x 2-3 cm, sometimes larger in cultivation, ovoid-ellipsoid to obliquely ovoid, compressed, with a lateral furrow, velutinous; mesocarp dry, leathery, splitting at maturity; endocarp obliquely ovoid, compressed, 2.5-3(-4) x l-2.2(-2.6) cm, greyish-white to brown, hard to fragile, usually with a lateral keel, surface smooth and pitted sometimes furrowed. Seed ovoid, 1.5-2 x 1-1.5 cm, with brown testa, smooth or minutely pubescent, sweet or bitter.