Small, glabrous, evergreen, crooked tree, up to 12 m, 40 cm Ø; bark slightly pimply and peeling, but not flaky or fissured, bitter; young leaves deep purple, acrid. Leaves 1-pinnate; leaflets 2-5 pairs, large, chartaceous, elliptic (mostly broad-), rarely oblong-lanceolate, short-tipped, with a conspicuous dark, dense gland-field at the oblique base underneath (often bulging on upper surface), 10-30 by 5-17 cm. Thyrse narrow, 6-50 cm, gradually elongating, sometimes the upper part still flowering while lower are in fruit. Calyx 3-5 mm, cup-shaped, without abscission line, persistent, truncate, purple, spotted with 5-7 purple glands in a crescent. Corolla narrow, slender, tube narrow, slightly curved, halfway rather gradually widening, 3(-4) cm, pinkish purple outside, white inside, with a gland-field at outside of the ciliate lobes, basal part of lower tube short capitate-glandular hairy inside. Stamens hairy at insertion. Pods hanging in bunches, straight, 15-30 cm; valves 5-7 mm wide; septum 3-4 mm ø. Seeds 10-16 by l½-2 mm.
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Trees small, glabrous except for pubescent young branches. Leaves 1-pinnately compound; petiolules ca. 6 mm; leaflets 3-7, long elliptic, 18-21 X 8-9 cm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences paniculate,ca. 25 cm, short branched, many flowered. Calyx campanulate, apex slightly truncate, 5-8 mm, glabrous. Corolla white, ca. 3.7 cm; tube pale purple-red abaxially, white and glandular adaxially, 3-4 cm in diam. at mouth, tubular at base; lobes rounded, ca. 8 mm, subentire. Capsule linear, 22-30 cm X 7-8 mm, smooth; pericarp thin; septum 3-4 mm in diam. Seeds compressed globose, including wing ca. 2 cm X 2-3 mm. Fl. Apr, fr. Jul.
Primary and secondary forests and thickets, frequently by streamsides, even rocky Stfractf-streams (CORNER), both under everwet and under seasonal conditions (in Central and East Java), from sea-level to 900 m, once reported from 5000 ft (Cameroon Highlands). Fl. April, July-Nov., ƒr. Jan.-Dec.The fine seed would indicate easy dispersal, but though the species is found in Penang and Krakatao Is., it has never been collected in the Riau Is., not in the islands west of Sumatra and also not in those close to East Java (Madura I., Bali, and Kangean) though it is found in Java as far east as Bali Straits and R. gigantea extends east as far as Alor. The glands at the leaflet basis are often black from sooty moulds indicating actual glandular excretion.
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