Large, widespreading tree, suckering moderately. Bark grey, fissured. Shoots ± angled when young, almost winged in strong vegetative shoots, reddish purple to yellowish brown. Buds very viscid, glabrous. Young shoots strongly viscid and balsam-scented. Petiole to c. 10 cm long, nearly terete, glabrous. Lamina to 18 × 13.5 cm, broad-ovate, glabrous except for minutely ciliolate margin, greenish white below, glossy green above, reddish brown when unfolding; midrib and veins pink above; margin crenate-serrulate, without translucent band; base subcordate to cordate, glandless; apex acuminate. Catkins ♂, pendulous, to 16 cm long. Bracts 2-4 mm long excluding long filiform teeth, glabrous, whitish. Rachis glabrous. Cup-shaped disc 1-3 mm deep, oblique, glabrous. Stamens 15-45; anthers crimson towards apex.