Tree (said to occur occasionally as a subscandent shrub in Natal) from about 4 to 8 m tall with stem up to 30 cm in diameter, bark greyish or light brown in colour; branchlets glabrous or puberulous, not tomentulose. Leaves glabrous, 5-13 cm long, 5-foliolate, sometimes 3-foliolate; leaflets varying considerably in size, texture and shape, the lateral elliptic to broadly elliptic or oblong, unequally cuneate at the base, about 3-7 cm long and 1-4 cm broad, the terminal usually a little larger than the other leaflets, more obovate-oblong, sometimes elliptic, subsessile or cuneate into a petiolule up to 1 cm long; petiole and rhachis winged, wing variable, narrow or broad auricled at base or not. Inflorescence puberulous, about 6-11 cm long, the lateral branches slender, usually over 2 cm long; bracts deciduous, variable in size, some 5 mm long and 2 mm broad, often narrower, rarely broader. Calyx more or less tubular-turbinate, persistently puberulous outside, sometimes densely so, almost velvety, pubescent in upper portion within, more or less truncate and slit or variously lobed, persisting in fruit. Corolla sweetly scented, white suffused with pink or puce at different stages, tube cylindrical, about 1 • 4 cm long, glabrous or variously puberulous in parts outside, often pubescent with rather long hairs near the base within; lobes suborbicular, about 5 mm long, crenate on margins, spreading, with a cluster of glandular reddish-brown hairs near the base on inner face. Stamens 2, inserted near the apex of the corolla and then exserted or, in other specimens, below the apex and then included. Ovary 2-celled, about 1 • 5 mm long, somewhat flattened and puberulous on top, obscurely 2-lobed, ovules 4 in each cell; pendulous; style about 1 ? 5 cm long, glabrous or sometimes sparsely pubescent with sho patent gland-tipped hairs, long exserted in flowers with stamens included and vice versa; stigma about 1-5 mm long, obscurely 2-lobed. Capsule green when young (turning black on drying) becoming light brown at maturity, puberulous except at base within calyx, obovate-oblong, slightly laterally flattened at right angles to the septum, parallel to the wall of division, with a ridge along the septum. Seeds 8 mm long with an oblong 1 • 1 cm X 6 mm subterminal wing (degree to which wing runs down one side varies, also the width).
