Trees or shrubs 1-10 m tall (apparently to 30 m in South America), un-branched or usually branched. Leaves 25-40 cm or more long; petioles 6-17 cm long, terete, not prominently swollen at the base; petiolule slender, swollen only near the base, 1.2-2.1 cm long; leaflets 5-7, mostly alternate, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, abruptly acuminate at the apex, obliquely cuneate at the base, (4-) 12-21 cm long, (1.2-)4.5-6 cm wide, glabrous except for a minute puberulence on the midrib, the midrib sunken on the upper surface, the major lateral veins mostly 10-12, arcuate ascending or forming an obscure connecting vein, the tertiary vena-tion conspicuous but not prominently raised, the lower surface brownish. Inflores-cences paniculate, axillary, mostly less than 10 cm long, the branches weakly angu-late, spreading, sparsely to densely puberulent; pedicels ca. 1 mm long, articulate at about the middle. Flowers white; calyx brown, 3-3.5 mm long, lobed in the up-per third, rarely to the middle, densely whitish-tomentose, the lobes triangular, blunt at the apex, the tube narrowly campanulate, appressed-pubescent within except toward the base; petals spatulate to narrowly spatulate, to 5.3 mm long and 1-1.8 mm wide, obtuse at the apex, glabrous on the outer surface above the base, sparsely covered with whitish glandlike trichomes on the outer surface, the scale to 6 mm long, glabrous in the lower third, densely sericeous in upper %/: on the inner surface; disc of 5 discrete sections, blackish, ca. 1 mm high, densely vil-lous at the apex; staminate flowers with 8 stamens 3.5-5.5 mm long, the filaments glabrous, the anthers ca. 8 mm long, narrowly elliptic, sometimes with 3 stamens shorter than the others, the pistil minute, shorter than the disc; bisexual flowers not seen. Fruits cordate, sessile, ca. 3 cm long, glabrous; seed compressed, ellip-soid, 1.5-2 cm long.
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