Shrub or tree 2-12(18) m tall; trunk reaching 25 cm in diam.; bark smooth, with bluish gray spots; inner bark orangish. Branches slightly angled, glabrous, becoming lenticellate. Leaves imparipinnate or paripinnate; rachis plus petiole 10-28 cm long, adaxially canaliculate, puberulent; leaflets 6-10, alternate to opposite, chartaceous, glabrous, sometimes the midvein abaxially puberulent, lower vein axils sometimes minutely foveate, elliptic or lanceolate, 4-11 × 1.5-3 cm, the base asymmetrical, obtuse/acute, decurrent into a short petiolule, the apex long-acuminate, the margins crenate-serrate. Thyrses axillary, paniculate, 4-12 cm long, the axes appressed-pubescent. Flowers in nearly sessile, simple dichasia; calyx yellowish to pale green, puberulent, sepals 1-1.5 mm long, ovate, free to the base, ciliate; petals as long as the sepals, ciliate, with two, suprabasal, marginal, wooly appendages; filaments pubescent at base. Capsule brown, woody, flattened-pyriform to nearly elliptic, 1.5-2 cm long, shortly stipitate at base, apiculate at apex.