Tree 4–30 m, bole diameter up to 1.6 m. Outer bark fairly smooth, brown or black, mottled with grey and fawn in large patches, sometimes flaking in small irregular scales; inner bark pale brown to reddish-brown. Sapwood cream, pink, red or dark red, latex white Twigs slender to fairly stout, thickly covered with pale brown, reddish-brown or pale orange-brown peltate scales 0.1–0.25 mm diam., which have a dark centre and a paler fimbriate margin. Leaves up to 67 cm long and 45 cm wide; petiole up to 17 cm, petiole, rachis and petiolules densely covered with scales like those on the twigs. leaflets (3 –)7–9(–l 1), 5–24 by 2.5–8 cm, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, sometimes recurved at the margin, cuneate at the asymmetrical base, usually with a broad rounded apex, but sometimes acuminate at apex; with scales like those on the twigs densely covering both surfaces when young, glabrescent on upper surface leaving it wrinkled or pitted, sometimes glabrescent on lower surface; veins 6–15 on each side of the midrib; petiolule up to 10( –20) mm on lateral leaflets. Inflorescence up to 30 cm long and 20 cm wide, pe-duncle, rachis, branches, pedicels and calyx thickly covered with scales like those on the twigs. Male flowers 2–4 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, female flowers 4.5–5 mm long, c. 3.5 mm wide; pedicel 1–5 mm. Petals 5, white, pale yellow or yellow, aestivation quincuncial. Staminal tube 1.3–3 mm long, 1.2–2.5 mm wide, obovoid, aperture 1–1.4 mm across and shallowly 5– (or 6–) lobed; anthers 5(–10), 0.6–1.5 mm long, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, ellipsoid or ovoid, inserted 1/3 to 2/3 of the way up the staminal tube and usually protruding through the aperture; with few to numerous stellate hairs or peltate scales on the anthers and the inside of the staminal tube. Ovary c. 0.6 mm high and 0.7 mm wide, subglobose; locule(s) 1 or 2, each containing 1 ovule; stigma 0.7–1.5 mm long, 0.3–0.4 mm wide, ovoid to fusiform with 2 small apical lobes. Infructescence 12–23 cm long, up to 14 cm wide; peduncle up to 5.5 cm, peduncle, rachis, branches and pericarp densely covered with scales like those on the twigs. Fruits c. 2.7 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, obovoid, sometimes with numerous wart-like bumps on the outside; locules (1 or) 2, each with 0 or 1 seed. Seeds with a pale yellow aril.
Periodically inundated, primary forest; more open, secondary formations; lowland and montane forest; riverine forest; growing on sandy clays and granites; at elevations from near sea level to 2,570 metres.
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