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A straggling shrub or small tree. It grows 8-10 m high. It loses its leaves in the dry season. The bark on old trees peels off leaving light coloured patches. The leaves are arranged in spirals or clustered on small spurs. The leaves have leaflets along the stalk. There are 3-16 pairs of small leaflets. These are 2 cm long by 1 cm wide. They are unequal on each side. The flowers are in small clusters in the axils of leaves. They are cream coloured. Male and female flowers are on separate trees. The fruit are orange or red. They are almost round and 15 mm long and wide. They are edible. There is one seed. It has a fleshy layer around it.
Leaves 2–10 cm. long, often borne on short shoots; rhachis pubescent, often narrowly winged; petiole 3–8 mm. long, pubescent; leaflets 3–14-jugate; petiolules up to 0·5 mm. long, or leaflets subsessile; leaflet-lamina up to 15 × 9 mm., obliquely oblong, chartaceous, sparsely pubescent mainly on the midrib, apex usually emarginate, margin entire, base ± truncate and attached to the petiolule almost at the corner; lateral nerves numerous for the size of the leaflet and rather closely spaced.
Flowers often appearing before the leaves, cream-coloured; pedicels 1–3 mm. long in male flowers and 5–6 mm. long in female flowers (fide Hauman), articulated at the base, pubescent.
Fruit orange to red, c. 15 × 15 mm., subglobose, glabrescent when mature, apiculate at the apex; stipe up to 7 mm. long.
Stamens 5; filaments 4 mm. long, glabrous; anthers 1·8–2 mm. long, apiculate; staminodes in male flowers very short.
Small tree or shrub; bark smooth, grey; wood reddish; branchlets dark greyish-brown, pubescent.
Sepals 5, 2 × 1 mm., oblong, pubescent.
Ovary 3-gonous; style 1 mm. long.
Seed 10 × 6 mm., ellipsoid.
Disk 0·8 mm. in diam.
