Tree 17-20(-50) m by 25-50 cm; sometimes buttressed. Branchlets 0.25-0.5 cm thick, soon glabrescent; pith with a peripheral cylinder of vascular strands. Stipules none. Leaves (0-)3-5 (-7)-jugate, glabrous. Leaflets ovate to lanceolate, 2-18 by 1-7 cm, thin-chartaceous; base slightly oblique, cuneate to rounded; margin entire; apex gradually narrowed into a short, broad and blunt acumen; nerves 10-15 pairs (angle 60-80°), straight to slightly curved, rather abruptly and conspicuously arching at some distance from the margin; intermediate veins strongly developed; reticulations lax. Inflorescences axillary, slender, narrowly and laxly paniculate, (4-)30-45 cm, glabrous; branches patent but for the longer basal ones, up to 4.5 cm (male ones sometimes up to 10 cm), long-stalked, ♂ ones many-flowered, female ones up to 5-flowered. Flowers 5-7 mm long, glabrous, female ones sometimes with a slightly concave receptacle. Calyx 2-3 mm high. Stamens glabrous, in ♂ flowers slightly connate at the base, in female flowers free. Disk in ♂ flowers pistilloid, ovoid, sometimes shortly stalked, 1.5 mm high, pilose at the apex, tapering into a short, style-like appendix, in female flowers cupular, 6-undulate, 1 mm high, fimbriate. Pistil glabrous (very rarely tomentose). Infructescences slender, with up to 5 fruits; calyx flat, triangular, 3.5-5 mm diam., with reflexed lobes. Fruits ovoid to obovoid, round in cross-section, 1¼-2 by ¾-1¼ cm, glabrous; pyrene faintly 6-ribbed, sometimes slightly rugose; lids 2 mm thick. Seed 1; sterile cells nearly obsolete.
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A large tree. It can be 20-30 m tall. The trunk is cylinder shaped and it can have buttresses. The bark is grey and can be rough of scaly and flaking. The leaves are spaced along the branches. They are compound and can be in spirals. The leaflets spread out like fingers on a hand. They are 6-7 cm long by 2-3 cm wide. They are dark green above and more pale underneath. The flowering shoots are in the axils of the leaves. Male and female flowers are separate on the same plant. The fruit are 12-20 mm long. They are purple. The seeds are about 1 cm long.
Uses. The wood can be used as a light constructional timber. The wood of the buttresses is said to be one of the components of the scented wood kaju rasamala. The oily parts of the resin are used as a balm on wounds and for hair lotions; in New Guinea for the latter purpose it is mixed with coconut-oil.
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The kernel of the nut is eaten.
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