Robust tree 20 m high with a wide crown. Its bark, the cork, is suberose, thick, dark ashen in the trunks and branches not uncorked, but reddish in the uncorked ones. The branches are very tortuous, the leaves are leathery, persistent, glabrous and green on the upper side and usually whitish on the underside. The flowers are unisexual, appear on the same tree and are not very showy.