Shrubs or small trees to 7 m. Branchlets terete and smooth. Leaves 8-12 cm, sometimes only 2 cm on shrubby twigs; petiole 1-1.5 cm; axis with winged ridges; leaflets (5-) 7-11(-13), sessile or subsessile; leaflet blade ovate-lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, (0.5-)3-4(-5.5) × 0.5-1.5 cm, subleathery, glabrous except for white puberulent abaxial base of midrib, base cuneate, slightly oblique, margin crenate, lower part entire, apex obtuse or acute; primary veins ca. 4 on each side of midrib. Cymose panicles lateral at branches of previous year, ca. 5 mm. Flowers polygamous, appearing before leaves. Corolla absent. Staminate flowers without calyx. Bisexual flowers with a minute, cupular calyx persistent in fruit. Samara oblong-linear, 3-5 cm × ca. 5 mm; wing decurrent to lower part of nutlet. Fl. Apr, fr. Oct. 2n = 46.
Found mainly in the dry inner valleys of the Himalayas. Dry slopes in valleys; at elevations from 1,000-2,800 metres.