Tree up to 35 m. Bole up to 23 m, up to 150 cm in circumference, with small L-shaped buttresses outwards up to 70 cm. Outer bark pale pinkish-brown with reddish-brown and grey patches, lenticellate and with longitudinal cracks, flaking off in irregu-lar scales up to 15 cm in diam.; inner bark pinkish-brown, red or green. Sapwood pink or pincish-brown; with watery greenish-brown exudate. Branches ascending patent. Twigs very stout, densely covered with brown stellate scales. Leaves imparipinnate, up to 60 cm long and 40 cm wide; petiole up to 25 cm, petiole, rachis and petiolules with indumentum like that on the twigs. Leaflets 7–19, 11–24 by 7.5–12 cm, shiny dark green on upper surface, coriaceous, elliptical, slightly recurved at margin, shortly acuminate at apex, usually rounded, sometimes cuneate at the asymmetrical base, lower surface dull, with few to numerous pale brown scales like those on the twigs on the midrib and veins and sparse on the surface in between; veins 7–13 on each side of the midrib, midrib and lateral veins raised and longitudinally ridged and wavy on lower surface; petiolules up to 15(–30) mm on lateral leaflets. Inflorescence up to 20 cm long; peduncle, branches and pedicels densely covered with stellate scales. Flowers c. 4.5 mm long and 3.5 mm wide; pedicels c. 1 mm. Calyx densely covered with stellate scales on the outer surface. Petals 3, with few to densely covered with stellate scales on the out-side. Staminal tube shorter than the corolla, cup-shaped; anthers 6(–8), about 2/3 the length of the tube, narrowly ovoid, curved with the tube and just protruding beyond the aperture, with simple hairs on the inner surface of the tube and on the anthers. Infruc-tescence up to 25 cm long with few fruits. Fruits up to 10 cm in diam., bright orange or red, densely covered with reddish-brown stellate hairs on the outside, subglobose, de-hiscing into 3; pericarp up to 1.5 cm thick, inner pericarp white, innermost layer in each locule a detachable membrane surrounding the seed. Locules 3, each containing 1 seed. Seeds up to 5 cm long, 3.5 cm wide and 2 cm thick, completely surrounded with a bright shiny orange-red (? or sometimes yellow) aril, which is easily detached from the rest of the seed; testa shiny chestnut brown.
A canopy or emergent tree in evergreen forests; primary forests and kerangas; on granitic sands, sands and clays; at elevations up to 1,300 metres.
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