Tree, 14 m by 25 cm ø; outer bark densely fissured, brittle and corky. Leaves spirally arranged, pari-or imparipinnate; leaflets 2-3 pairs, glabrous, elliptic to obovate-oblong, shortly rounded-acuminate, 8-12 by 4-4.5 cm; upper surface shining, lower surface opaque; very small pitted glands along the margins and in the acumen on the upper surface; nerves sunken in both upper and lower surface, or obscure, ending in a marginal vein; veins obscure; petiole c. 5 cm, as the rachis ± terete; petiolules 1-1.5 cm, articulated at the base. Panicle puberulous in all its parts, not quite as long as the leaves. Bracts spathulate, succulent in the apical part, up to 2.5 mm long. Male flowers 4-5-merous. Pedicels up to 7 mm. Calyx c. 1 mm high, outside puberulous, lobes ovate to triangular, longer than the tube. Petals contorted or imbricate in bud, glabrous, elliptic to ovate-oblong, c. 3-4 by 2 mm. Stamens slightly shorter than the petals; filaments sigmoid-folded in bud, with a hairy adaxial scale at the base; scale free for 1/3 of its length, more or less emarginate, c. 0.5-1 mm long; anthers oblong, latrorse, c. 0.5-1 mm long. Disk c. 0.5 mm high, at the basis c. 2 and at the apex c. 1 mm wide, the upper half distinct from the lower half and folded around the barren ovaries. Carpels free, c. 0.25 mm high; style as long as the carpels, with a small 4-5-lobed stigma. Female flowers unknown. Fruits drupaceous, 1-5 from each flower, if more than one diverging radially from a thickened torus, prune-shaped, dark purple-red when ripe sec. coll.; in dry state slightly flattened-ellipsoid, with a faint dorsal and ventral ridge, c. 2-3 by 1½ cm; pericarp thin but hard. Seed with a thin testa; plumule short; cotyledons large, green, plano-convex; no endosperm (BURGESS 2849).
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