Tree or shrub up to c. 10 m tall, glabrous; bark grey-brown with papery peel. Leaves spiral on long-shoots or clustered at the tip of short-shoots, imparipinnate with 3–4 pairs of lateral leaflets; leaflets broadly lanceolate to almost round, c. 2–14 x 1.2–8 cm, acuminate, regularly serrate with teeth terminating in a fine 1.5–3 mm long arista; sheaths abruptly narrowed to the c. 6–15 cm long petiole. Flowers usually appearing before the leaves; umbels pedunculate, some entirely bisexual or all male, or the central ones bisexual and the outer male; rays 10–25(–40), c. 2–8 cm long; involucre of 7–8 reflexed c. 3–5 mm long bracts; flowers 10–50 in each partial umbel, on 4–9 mm long pedicels; involucel of 3–5 bracteoles 1–2 mm long. Calyx-lobes c. 0.5 mm long. Petals cream to yellow, c. 1–1.5 mm long. Fruits flat, ± narrowly obovate, 8–15 x 5–8 mm, with 3 low dorsal ribs, straw-coloured at maturity, emarginate at the apex; styles 1–1.5 mm long, divergent.
Range
N1 widespread in tropical Africa southwards to northern South Africa.
