Spiny tree 4–8 m. tall with a well-defined cylindrical trunk up to 5 m. long, glabrous throughout except for some weak yellowish brown hairs at the leaf-base; outer bark peeling in long tough brownish yellow horizontal strips; twigs dark grey or purple when very young, rather stout, ± 2 mm. in diameter 4 cm. below the tip; exudate sometimes copious, milky, not aromatic.. Leaves subsessile, a vivid glaucous blue when fresh, 1-foliolate on short-shoots, sometimes hetero-3-foliolate on long-shoots, cuneate-obovate, rounded or acute apically, with 3–6 teeth on the distal half of each side, 15–30 mm. long, 8–12 mm. wide.. Male flowers borne among the leaves, greenish yellow, on pedicels ± 1 mm. long; calyx including ± 0.7 mm. lobes ± 1.7 mm. long; petals linear, ± 3 mm.; filaments 2.0 and 1.5 mm., anthers 0.7 and 0.5 mm. long.. Fruit sessile or on an up to 1 mm. long stalk, pointed, ± 10.5 × 6 × (2.5 + 3.5) mm.; pericarp 2-valved; entirely enveloped by pseudaril; stone smooth, with very large apical pits, a well-marked germination shield, and pronounced ridges on the sutures and on the distal part of the sterile locule so that it appears tricarinate or triquetrous when viewed from above, ± 8 × 4.2 × (2 + 3.5) mm.
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