Dioecious, much-branched small tree, ± 3 m. tall in Tanzania but 12–30 m. tall in Somalia and Madagascar; young twigs densely pubescent at first, later glabrous, with bark whitish, smooth, later fissuring vertically to become red-brown; older bark peeling like a plane tree.. Leaf-rhachis 2–8(–12.5) cm. long, somewhat flattened and with raised lateral lines, pilose or glabrous; petiolules 2–8 mm. long, channelled, swollen; leaflets in 2–4(–5) pairs, opposite, ovate to narrowly elliptic, 0.5–1.4 cm. long, 1.5–4 cm. wide, the uppermost pair largest, the lowermost slightly to 1/3 smaller, shortly and bluntly acuminate, the base cuneate and usually asymmetric, thick, leathery, drying purplish-brown beneath, glabrous apart from scattered hairs on the midrib; midrib sunken above, prominent beneath, lateral nerves looping inside the margin with smaller veins between the loops and the margins, venation raised and reticulate beneath.. Flowers 5–6 mm. long, borne in fascicles of cymes; inflorescence-axes 1.5–6 cm. long, the branches ± 1 cm. long, both yellowish pubescent, abruptly transitional to glabrous; pedicels 1–2 mm. long, deciduous with the (male) flowers.. Sepals unequal, orbicular, 2–4 mm. long, concave, glabrous; petals 5, white, slightly exceeding the sepals, ovoid, briefly clawed, 4 mm. long, 3.5 mm. broad, the scale half as long as the limb, villous-hairy.. Stamens 12, shortly exserted; anthers oblong, 1.3 mm. long, briefly auriculate at the base; filaments flattened, glabrous.. Ovary rudiment minute.. Female flowers not seen.. Fruits not seen.. Fig. 16.
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