Small, straight-boled tree to 15 m high, bole up to 10.5 m high, 20 cm in diameter. Branchlets terete, densely puberulous or shortly tomentose, brownish when young, later on reddish and scaly. Leaves: rachis 1-17 cm, tomentose, glands circular, often with raised central part, sessile or subsessile, 1-2 mm in diameter; pinnae 1-3 pairs, to 15 cm, puberulous or tomentose; petiolules to 5 mm, puberulous or tomentose; leaflets 1-4 pairs per pinna, opposite, chartaceous, drying brownish, usually somewhat unequal-sided, ovate elliptic, obovate-elliptic, or lanceolate, (2.5-)5-15 by (1—)3—7 cm, base symmetrically or asymmetrically broadly cuneate, or rounded, apex acuminate with obtuse tip; both surfaces glabrous but major veins occasionally scarcely puberulous; principal lateral veins 6-9 per leaflet-half, arching, non-parallel; reticulation prominulous above, prominent beneath. Inflorescences terminal, densely puberulous or tomentose, consisting of pedunculate glomerules aggregated into panicles to 30 (-40) by 60 cm; glomerules composed of c. 3 shortly pedicellate flowers, pedicel 0.3-0.8 mm; floral bracts oblong, acute, c. 1 mm, densely puberulous. Flowers pentamerous, bisexual. Calyx green, shallowly cup-shaped or subrotate, c. 0.5 mm, sericeous; teeth hardly visible, deltoid, acute. Corolla white, yellowish-green or pale green, campanulate, 2.5-3 mm, finely sericeous especially in the distal part, lobes ovate-elliptic, acute, reflexed, 1-1.5 mm. Stamens white or yellowish green, c. 8-11 mm, the tube equalling the corolla-tube. Ovary solitary, scarcely sericeous. Pods: two kinds of pods usually present; sterile ones in the outer part of the infructescence, reddish to bright orange, densely contorted, puberulous or glabrous, c. 0.5 cm wide; fertile pods in the central part of the infructescence, reddish to bright orange outside, reddish orange within, contorted into a circle 2-3 cm in diameter, valves 0.5-1.5 cm wide, coriaceous, ± sinuate between the seeds, puberulous or glabrous, veins inconspicuous, dehiscing first along the ventral suture. Seeds black with a bluish bloom, ellipsoid, c. 7-8 by 6 mm.
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A small tree. It grows up to 15 m high and has a straight trunk. It can reach 10 m before the first branches. The trunk can be 20 cm across. There can be buttresses. The small branches are round and densely hairy. The leaf axis is 1-17 cm long and divided into a compound leaf. There are 1-3 pairs of first leaf divisions which are 15 cm long and then 1-4 pairs of leaflets 5-15 cm long by 3-7 cm wide. They are unequal in shape and oval. The flower cluster is at the ends of branches and is hairy. They are in flower heads 30 cm long by 60 cm across. The flowers have 5 flower parts and are of both sexes. The fruit are pods and two kinds of pods occur. In the outer part of the arrangement the pods are sterile, red and distorted. Fertile pods are in the centre. These are reddish-orange and curved into a circle 2-3 cm across. The seeds are black with a bluish bloom. They are 7-8 mm long by 6 mm across.
Light primary and secondary rainforest; forest margins; by rivers; common on hillsides and ridge-tops, also in swampy forest; growing in sandy, sandy loam, lateritic, black, or ultrabasic soils at elevations up to 50O metres, exceptionally to 1,200 m
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A tropical plant. Trees grown in light secondary rainforest. Often they are in sandy soil and swampy conditions. They grow from sea level to 500 m altitude but occasionally up to 1,200 m.
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