Deciduous tree 10–35 m. high; trunk usually straight and without branches for several m., 30–90 cm. in diameter at the base, armed with conical woody prickle-bearing straight protuberances 1–3 cm. long; bark grey and smooth; branches glabrous, armed with conical reddish straight or slightly recurved prickles 2–8 mm. long.. Leaves in terminal clusters, closely alternate, 25–120(–150) cm. long; rhachis terete at the base, flattened above, sometimes with straight sharp prickles 2–7 mm. long, glabrous; petiolules 5–10 mm. long; leaflets 13–27, alternate or subopposite, elliptic-oblong to elliptic, (8–)14–30 cm. long, 3.5–10 cm. broad, attenuate or abruptly acuminate to the obtuse apex, asymmetrical and cuneate or rounded at the base (sometimes very asymmetrical), entire or slightly crenulate, coriaceous, glabrous, gland-dots numerous but small and almost inconspicuous; midrib sometimes with sparse prickles, prominent beneath; lateral nerves 8–14 pairs.. Inflorescence of terminal and axillary pyramidal panicles, 20–34 cm. long, sometimes aculeate at the base; flowers clustered, sessile or very shortly pedicellate.. Sepals 5, united halfway, ovate to subcircular, 0.5–0.8 mm. long.. Petals pandurate to obovate, 1–2.5 mm. long, 1–1.5 mm. broad, white, turning brown.. Male flowers: stamens 5, all varying in length; filaments 1.5–2.8 mm. long; disk dome-shaped and lobed; vestigial ovary obsoletely lobed.. Female flowers: staminodes 5, reduced to aborted anthers; gynophore 0.2–0.3 mm. long; ovary ovoid, 1–1.4 mm. long, foveolate.. Fruit reddish, subglobose, 3.5–6 mm. in diameter, glandular-foveolate, sessile or with a short stipe and a persistent calyx.. Seed 2.5–3.5 mm. in diameter, with black shiny testa.
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A tree. It grows 35 m tall. The trunk is without branches for 15 m. It is straight and cylinder shaped. It is 90 cm across. It has prickles up to 3 cm long. The leaves are alternate and clustered at the ends of branches. They are compound. There are 13-27 leaflets with one leaflet at the end. The leaves are 120 cm long. The leaflets are 14-30 cm long by 4-10 cm wide. The flowers are of separate sexes. The fruit are round and woody. They are 4-6 mm across. The seeds are round.
Moist forest, (evergreen) rain-forest, riverine and gallery forests; forest with Terminalia; upland rain-forest; forest regrowth, farmbush, old farmland, near forest plantations; wooded savannah at elevations from sea level up to 2,400 metres.
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It is a tropical plant. It grows up to 2,400 m altitude. The rainfall is 1,200-2,400 mm per year. It grows in the humid zone in West Africa.
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