In Florida, the trees are low and spreading, with trunks branching near the ground, probably because of having suffered occasional frost injury. No aerial roots were observed. The twigs are hollow when young, about 0.7 cm thick, and densely silky-pubescent.
Older twigs are chocolate-brown, with leaf scars large and prominent.
The terminal buds are 2.5 cm long, 0.7 cm thick at the base, pubescent, somewhat flattened or angular, and green to tawny. The alternative leaves are large, up to 25 cm long and 15 cm broad, ovate, the apex bluntly acute or acuminate, and the margins coarsely serrate to almost entire. The blades are variable as to the base, which is sometimes obovate and narrowed to cordate with narrow sinus, the lobes often overlapping and sometimes asymmetrical. Some blades are distinctly narrowed from the middle or above toward the rounded base. The texture is chartaceous.