Trees, evergreen, 10-20 m tall or more. Branches striate, grayish brown when dry, ferruginous pubescent when young. Leaves with petiole 20-40 cm; leaflets (2-)4 pairs; petiolules 5-8 mm; blades 6-18 × 2.5-7.5 cm, thinly leathery, glaucous, pilose abaxially, lateral veins 9-14 pairs or more, prominent and nitid abaxially, smooth or slightly concave adaxially, base and apex nearly acute. Inflorescences many branched, male ones nearly as long as leaves, female ones shorter. Calyx ca. 1.5 mm, densely pilose. Disk pilose. Stamens 7 or 8; filaments ca. 3 mm, villous. Ovary 2-lobed, 2-loculed, pilose. Fruit red, ellipsoid, 4-5 × 3-4 cm including spines; spines ca. 1 cm or longer, bilaterally compressed, base broad, apex acute, hooklike. Fl. spring, fr. summer.
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A tree. It keeps its leaves throughout the year. It grows 10-20 m tall. The branches have a rusty covering of hairs when young. The leaf stalks are 20-40 cm long. The leaflets are in 4 pairs. The blades are 6-18 cm long by 3-7 cm wide. They are thinly leathery. The flowers are in branching groups. The male flowering groups are longer than the female. The fruit is red and oval with 2 lobes. The fruit are 4-5 cm long by 3-4 cm wide including the spines. The spines can be 1 cm long.
A tropical plant. A wet and light demanding tree. It grows along streams and on the edges of forests. It occurs below 400-600 m altitude. It does best on wet, thick soil. In Yunnan in China it grows between 600-1300 m above sea level.
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Dense forests at elevations of 500-1,500 metres in southern China.
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