Tree up to 15 m, sometimes flowering at 3.5 m. Bole up to 6 m, up to 15 cm in diam. Branches ascending, forming a narrow open crown. Outer bark greenish-grey or grey-ish-brown, with hoop marks, with pale lenticels in vertical rows; inner bark pale yellow to pinkish-brown; sapwood white or pale yellow; heartwood reddish-brown; latex white, copious. Twigs with few scales except at the apex which is densely covered with small delicate pale brown stellate scales. Leaves 18–43 cm long, 16–38 cm wide; petiole 3–12 cm, petiole, rachis and petiolules with occasional scales like those on the twigs. Leaflets 3–7, 4–23 by 1.5–7.5 cm, both surfaces matt when dry, acuminate at apex, usually cuneate, sometimes rounded at the slightly asymmetrical base, with very few scales like those on the twigs on the midrib below, often with numerous tiny shiny orange spots below; veins (4–)7–12 on each side of the midrib, orange-green when dry, reticulation subprominent below and visible above; petiolules 5–10(–30) cm long, with a swelling at the base, which is black when dry. Male inflorescence 11–31 cm long, 11–28 cm wide; peduncle 0.5–7 cm, peduncle, rachis and branches flattened, greenish-brown or pale brown when dry and with a few pale brown or nearly white scales like those on the twigs. Female inflorescence c. 19 cm long and 10 cm wide; peduncle c. 7 cm long. Male and female flowers similar, 0.7–1.5 mm long, 1–1.7 mm wide; pedicels 0.5–0.8 (–1.3) mm, calyx and pedicel with scattered stellate scales or none at all. Petals 5. Sta-minal tube dark yellow, 0.5–1 mm long, 0.7–1.5 mm wide, cup-shaped or obovoid, thickened inside below the anthers, the aperture c. 0.7 mm, sometimes with the margin incurved, anthers (4 or) 5, 0.3–0.5 mm long, up to 0.4 mm wide, protruding and point-ing towards the centre of the flower and filling the aperture. Infructescence 20–25 cm long, 11–20 cm wide; peduncle 4–13 cm, peduncle, rachis and branches pale orange-brown when dry, with few scales like those on the inflorescence; fruitstalks c. 5 mm. Fruits 0.9–2 cm long, 0.5–0.8 cm wide, orange, obovoid when young, ellipsoid when ripe, (often asymmetrical when only one seed develops, and the stigma is displaced to one side during development of the fruit), with few scales like those on the twigs or none at all, pericarp orange-brown, papery thin and brittle when dry, orange or red when ripe and fresh. Locules 2, each containing 0 or 1 seed.
Home