Woody vine to 30 m long. Stems terete, lenticellate, glabrous, young branches minutely appressed-pubescent, producing milky sap; cross section with a single vascular cylinder. Stipules minute, early deciduous. Leaves pinnately 5-foliolate (less often trifoliolate); petioles unwinged, terete, furrowed, glabrous; rachis unwinged or marginate, glabrous or nearly so; leaflets coriaceous, usually with minute, resinous dots on abaxial surface, glabrous except for the barbate or barbulate vein axils abaxially, elliptic to lanceolate, 4-14 × 2.8-7 cm, the base acuminate to obtuse, the apex short-to long-acuminate, the margins remotely serrate or nearly entire; tertiary veins reticulate. Thyrses paniculate, or less often spicate; cincinni sessile, few-flowered. Calyx canescent, tomentulose, with 5 sepals, outer sepals rounded, 2-2.5 mm long, inner sepal 4-5 mm long; petals spatulate, ca. 5 mm long; appendages bifid and fleshy at apex. Capsule 3-winged, woody, with trilobed-turbinate outline, strongly veined, stipitate, the coccus subglobose, ferruginous-tomentulose, 0.8-2 × 1.2-1.5 cm, apiculate at apex, the wings dorsal, 3-4 mm long, glabrescent, surrounding the coccus and slightly projecting beyond its apex and tapering on the stipe; 1-3-seeded; endocarp glabrous. Seed nearly ellipsoid, black, puberulent, with a white, sarcotesta on lower ⅓-½.
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