Vatica chinensis is a tropical evergreen tree, growing to 25 metres (82ft) in height.[3] Its trunk bole is buttressed, pale green smooth bark. The exudation is resinous.[4]
Leaves are simple, alternate; stipules small, fugacious; petiole 20–50mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 9-25 x 3–11cm, ovate or oblong, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, apex obtusely acute, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; lateral nerves 10-14 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, prominent.[3]
Flowers are bisexual, white, in axillary spreading panicles; pedicels 5-ribbed; ribs alternating with sepals; calyx tube very short, adnate to the base of the ovary; lobes 5, ovoid-deltoid, acute, pubescent; petals 5, white, oblong; stamens 15 in 2 rows; filaments short, flattened at base; anthers oblong, shortly apiculate; ovary superior, covered with large shallow pits, lepidote, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style about as long as ovary, ribbed; stigmas densely papillose, obscurely 3-lobed.[3]
Fruits are a capsule, lepidote, subglobose shortly pointed with 3 obscure, loculicidal furrows, puberulous; pericarp coriaceous; calyx persistent.[3][5][6]
