Shrubs, to 2 m tall. Branches glabrous or sometimes brown hirsute when young, with sparse, slender, terete, needlelike prickles at nodes. Petiole 3-10 cm; petiolules 1-5 mm, brown pubescent or setose; leaflets (3-)5, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, 4-7 × 1-2.5 cm, membranous, both surfaces brown pubescent or setose, secondary veins 6-10 pairs, abaxially conspicuous, base rounded or acute, margin setose-serrate or setose-biserrate, apex acuminate or abruptly so. Inflorescence terminal, a small panicle of umbels, borne on leafy shoots, glabrous; peduncles 1.5-7 cm; pedicels 4-10 mm, slender. Calyx of 5 teeth, glabrous. Corolla yellow-green. Ovary (4 or)5-carpellate, sparsely pubescent at base when young; styles united into a column, 0.5-1 mm. Fruit ovoid-globose; styles persistent, 1-1.5 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.