Ailanthus fordii Noot.

Small but conspicuous tree, sec. coll. 'the bare trunk surmounted with foliage like a palm'. Leaves c. 40 cm long; leaflets 6-13 pairs, opposite to subopposite, entire, glabrous or nearly so, with few, small, flat glands scattered on the undersurface; petiole 7-13 cm; rachis puberulous to glabrous. Panicle large, dense-flowered, pyramidal, 20-40 cm long and c. 20 cm wide at the base; branches of the first, and sometimes also of the 2nd and 3rd order with a conspicuous constricted articulation at the base. Pedicels 1-2 mm. Bracts small, triangular, not early caducous. Flowers 1-3 together, unisexual, the female ones with reduced stamens. Calyx cupular, c. 0.5 mm high, with 5 short, obtuse lobes. Petals 5, glabrous, ± oblong, 2-3 by c. 1 mm. Stamens glabrous, in male flowers sinuous in bud, 3-5 mm long, in female flowers c. 1-3 mm long; anthers c. 0.75 mm long, sterile in female flowers. Disk 5-lobed on top, 0.5-1 mm high. Carpels 5, densely puberulous; styles connate, 0.5-1 mm high, more or less puberulous; stigmas 5, free, except at the very base, recurved-curled outwards, 1-1.5 mm long. Samara 3-5 by 1-1.75 cm; main vessel to seed intramarginal; stylar scar at the same level as the apex of the seed.