Often shrub-like tree, 5-15 m by 5-25 cm. Branchlets slender, glabrescent; pith loose with indistinct vascular strands, most of them peripherally arranged. Stipules absent. Leaves (1-)4-5 (-7)-jugate, glabrous. Leaflets oblique-elliptic, slightly falcate, (5-)8-14 by (2-)3-4.5 cm, chartaceous; base cuneate; margin entire; apex abruptly, rather long and broadly (up to 2 by 0.5 cm) blunt-acuminate, acumen curved; nerves 9-11 pairs (angle c. 75° at the broader, 50-60° at the narrower side), straight to faintly curved, gradually more so towards the margin, more or less distinctly arching in the apical part only; reticulations lax. Inflorescences axillary, broadly and laxly paniculate, ♂ ones mostly 30-40 cm, female ones 60-80 cm long, glabrous; all axes very slender; main branches patent, up to 10 cm (female ones up to 15 cm), repeatedly laxly cymose, terminal parts mono-chasial, 2-3 cm long, c. 10-flowered (female ones with fewer flowers); bracts broadly deltoid. Flowers 6-1 mm long, slender, glabrous outside, female ones sometimes with a slightly concave receptacle, said to be purplish. Calyx 3-3.5 mm high. Stamens glabrous, slightly confluent at the base. Disk in ♂ flowers strongly developed, 2.5 mm high, glabrous, c. globose, 6-lobed, 0.5 mm stalked, with a narrow central, conical canal, which is sometimes closed at the top, and which sometimes includes a minute rudiment of the pistil; in ♀ flowers 1 mm high, annular, faintly 6-lobed. Pistil glabrous. Infructescences with few fruits; calyx saucer-shaped, 3-lobed, 1 cm diam. Fruits ovate-oblong to bottle-shaped, bulging on one side, blunt at base and apex, the latter pointed by the persistent style-base, round in cross-section, 2½-3½ by 1.25-1.5 cm, smooth, glabrous; pericarp very thin; pyrene smooth; lids 1-1.5 mm thick, bony, the fruits first red, when ripe black. Seed 1; sterile cells much reduced, linear, c. 6 by 1 mm; central canal strongly developed, 4-5 mm diam.
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