Monoecious glabrous or puberulous much-branched shrub or small, spreading sparingly spiny tree up to 12 m. tall, with ± horizontal branches.. Bark pale yellow-green, scaly.. Wood cream or fawn, smelling of crushed Pisum pods.. Orthotropic shoots robust, subterete, green at first, soon becoming reddish brown and then greyish brown after two seasons’ growth. Leafy plagiotropic shoots (produced in the new season’s growth) 15–40(–45) cm. long, resembling pinnate leaves, green. Brachyblasts present, co-axillary with the primary (leafy) plagiotropic shoots, and in a later season giving rise to secondary (floriferous) plagiotropic shoots, either singly or in fascicles, before the leaves are produced.. Cataphylls and cataphyllary stipules lanceolate, 2–3 mm. long, subentire, sometimes fimbriate at the apex, purplish brown.. Leaves of the plagiotropic shoots distichous; petioles 1–3 mm. long; blades commonly elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, sometimes with the lowest ones on the shoots obovate-suborbicular, (1–)3–5(–7) cm. long, (0.8–) 1.5–2(–2.8) cm. wide, acutely acuminate, acute, subacute or obtuse, sometimes rounded or truncate and then usually mucronate with a scarious brown mucro, rounded or cuneate-rounded, sometimes asymetrically so, membranaceous to thinly chartaceous, lateral nerves 7–10 pairs, usually indistinct above and slightly prominent beneath, usually glabrous above and beneath, but occasionally sparingly puberulous along the midrib above and on the surface beneath, pale green.. Stipules variable, the lowest pairs tending to resemble the cataphyllary stipules, whilst the upper ones of a leafy shoot may be oblong to linear-lanceolate, 2 mm. long, entire or fimbriate, and mostly pale green but brown at the apex.. Flowers fasciculate usually along the axes of short (2–5 cm. long, rarely longer) non-leafy plagiotropic shoots produced from the old wood, either with 1 female and 3 or more male flowers per cluster, or else the clusters all male, or else towards the base of shorter leafy shoots; bracts ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.5 mm. long, fimbriate-laciniate, pale green at the base, otherwise chestnut-brown.. Male flowers: pedicels 1 mm. long; sepals 5, ovate, adaxially concave, 1.5 mm. long, obtuse or rounded, pale green; disc-glands 5, free, transversely ovate, smooth, slightly fleshy; stamens 5, free, filaments 0.5 mm. long, anthers broadly ovoid, 0.3 mm. long, vertically-held, longitudinally dehiscent.. Female flowers: pedicels 2–3 mm. long, extending to 1–1.5 cm. in fruit; sepals (4–)5(–6), suborbicular, 2 mm. long, obtuse, erose, pale green; disc pentagonal to shallowly quinquelobate, the lobes shallowly crenulate to subentire, flat, thin, but incrassated and shallowly verruculose toward the margin; ovary sessile, trilobate-subglobose, 2 mm. diameter, smooth; styles stout, slightly connate at the base, 1 mm. long, horizontally-held, bifid, the stigmas subulate, straight.. Fruit trilobate-obconic-subglobose, 2–3 cm. long, 2–2.5 cm. diameter, smooth, inflated, bladder-like, somewhat fleshy at first, but when dry with a thin, papery pericarp, and a thinly crustaceous endocarp, glabrous, pale green.. Seeds compressed-ovoid, 6 mm. long, 5 mm. deep, 4 mm. wide, smooth, somewhat shiny, bronze-grey, streaked and marbled with dark reddish brown.
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Female flowers: pedicels 2 mm long, extending to 1 cm or more in fruit; sepals 5, 2 × 2 mm, suborbicular, erose; disk 1.5 mm in diameter, annular, flat, thin but with a slightly thickened margin, subentire; ovary 2 mm in diameter, ± sessile, 3-lobed to subglobose, smooth; styles 3, c. 1 mm long, very slightly connate at the base, appressed to the top of the ovary, bifid, the stigmas subulate.
Leaf blades 3–6 × 1–2 cm, lanceolate, the lowest sometimes suborbicular, acute or subacute, the lowest sometimes truncate or retuse and brown-mucronate, rounded to cuneate at the base, membranaceous to thinly chartaceous, usually glabrous above and beneath, pale green; lateral nerves in 6–12 pairs, scarcely prominent above, slightly so beneath, looped well within the margin.
Lateral leafy shoots appearing after the flowers, up to 45 cm long, strongly resembling pinnate leaves, crowded at the branch ends, green; lateral flowering shoots up to 5 cm long, borne on the old wood from short shoots, in fascicles; rarely the leafy shoots with axillary flowers also.
Male flowers: pedicels c. 1 mm long; sepals 2–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, ovate, pale green; disk glands 5, free or ± so, irregularly transversely ovoid, ± smooth, fleshy; stamens 5, free, filaments 0.5 mm long, anthers 0.3 mm long, broadly ovoid, vertically-held, longitudinally dehiscent.
Flowers fasciculate, usually on leafless lateral shoots, either with 1 female and several male flowers per fascicle or else fascicles all male, which often arise below the leafy shoots; bracts 1.5 mm long, triangular to spathulate, fimbriate-laciniate, dark brown.
A multi-stemmed tree up to 9 m tall with a spreading crown, monoecious, usually glabrous, deciduous, spiny; bole smooth, grey; branches trailing, brown at first, later flaking to become greyish.
Foliage leaves distichous, hysteranthous; petioles 1–2 mm long; stipules 2–3 mm long, linear-lanceolate to filiform, usually subentire, pale green and/or light brown.
Scale leaves 4 mm long, lanceolate, sometimes fimbriate at the apex, purplish-brown, spinescent; stipules 2–3 mm long otherwise similar to the scale leaves.
Fruit 1.5–3 × 1.5–3 cm, 3-lobed to subglobose, smooth, inflated, somewhat fleshy at first, later with a papery pericarp, glabrous, pale green when ripe.
Seeds 7 × 6 × 4.5 mm, compressed-ovoid, smooth, shiny, buff, marbled with dark brown; hilum with a small aperture.
Lead shoots robust, green at first, soon turning reddish-brown.
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