A spreading rambling thicket-forming spiny shrub 1–3.5 m. tall, whose stems bend over and may root where they touch the ground, thus behaving as stolons; stems silvery grey, the outer bark peeling in yellowish brown flakes from the dark green shining under-bark; branches borne at right-angles to the main axis, arising from “buttressed elbows”; twigs green and glossy; exudate resinous, strongly pine-scented.. Leaves all 3-foliolate, usually pubescent or hispidulous with very short (0.01–0.1 mm.) glandular hairs and longer (0.1–0.6 mm.) non-glandular hairs, but in Mpwapwa District often almost glabrous though nearly always with a few hairs near the base of the leaflets, especially on the nerves beneath; petiole 1/3–1/2 as long as the terminal leaflet which is ovate or elliptic, basally attenuate, apically acuminate, up to 45 mm. long and 22 mm. wide; lateral leaflets from 1/3 to 4/5 as large as the terminal; margins crenate-serrate with more than 15 teeth on each side, extending nearly to the base.. Male inflorescence a 2–4-branched crimson, glandular-pubescent cyme; bracteoles ± 8 mm., peduncle up to 10 mm.; pedicels up to 5 mm. long; calyx glandular-pubescent, the tube 1.5 mm., lobes triangular, 0.5 mm. long; petals glabrous, widened and spreading near the tip, 5.5 mm. long, 0.6 mm. wide; filaments 4.5 and 2.5, anthers 0.8 and 0.6 mm. long.. Female inflorescence similar but shorter; peduncle up to 4 mm., pedicels up to 3 mm., calyx-tube ± 1 mm. long; ovary glabrous, style 0.5 mm. long.. Fruits 1–3 together on a common peduncle, becoming pink when ripe, asymmetrically obovoid, obtuse or very broadly pointed, ± 8 × 5 × (3 + 3) mm.; pericarp 2-valved; pseudaril crimson, covering the whole putamen which is asymmetrically obovoid, somewhat corrugated, trigonous, with well-marked apical pits, ± 7.5 × 4.7 × (2.5 + 2.8) mm., the sterile locule with a well-marked dorsal ridge larger above the middle.
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