A huge evergreen tree that can grow up to 60m in its native enviroment. Trunk is straight, sometimes with buttresses.Bark is smooth, yellow, brown, and purple but green immediately after flaking off. Leaves are lanceolate in shape when young and become more rounded when older. Flowers occur in spike-like clusters, cream to pale-green in colour. Fruits hemispherical in shape with 3-4 valves, dark brown in colour, containing tiny flattened seeds with a small wing.

This beautiful tree of Papua New Guinea has distinctive peeling bark with multi-coloured streaks. Why are there so many colours? This is because the patches of outer bark are shed at different times, showing the bright-green inner bark which matures to give blue, purple, orange and then maroon tones. Its cheerful colour belies the more serious past of the park grounds: Katong Park was constructed on the site of the Tanjong Katong Fort (1879-1901), one of the old military forts built by the former British colonial government. This Heritage Tree had a girth of 2.9m when measured in Year 2003.