Shrub or small tree up to 8 m. tall, often with spinescent branches (spine, 3·5–7·5 cm. long, usually stout, cylindric-conic), leafless or leafy; bark of the stems branches and spines pale grey with numerous and very prominent lenticels; branchlets whitish, shortly pubescent. Petiole 1–4 cm. long, slender, glabrous, dorsally convex, canaliculate above. Leaflets pale glaucous or greyish-green above, paler below, lanceolate or oblong, cuneate at the base or the lateral ones ovate to ovate-lanceolate and not so cuneate as the median, all blunt and emarginate at the apex, frequently with the margin entire or shallowly crenate-dentate, membranous or ± rigid, rarely subcoriaceous, the median one 3·5–7 × 0·6–1·3 cm., the lateral ones smaller; midrib slender, prominent on both surfaces; lateral nerves very delicate, 5–7 mm. apart, slightly conspicuous; reticulation barely or not at all visible. Panicles terminal and axillary, shorter than the leaves or the terminal ones somewhat longer, ± dense, with the branches slightly scrofulous and pilose; pedicels 1–1·5 mm. long. Male flower: calyx-segments c. 0·5 mm. long, ovate; petals yellowish, c. 1·5 mm. long, oblong; filaments c. 1 mm. long; disk 5-lobulate, lobules emarginate. Drupe shining, 3·5 mm. in diam., globose, glabrous.
