Polygamous or dioecious many-stemmed shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall; bark grey to green, smooth or flaking in small yellowish papery pieces; young branchlets with a few short hairs, spine-tipped. Leaves trifoliolate, with a few short hairs, green; petiole 5-45 mm long; leaflets elliptic or ovate to broadly ovate; petiolules usually less than 1 mm long; margins entire or upper half finely crenate-serrate, apex acute, base cuneate, terminal leaflet up to 45 X 30 mm, lateral leaflets up to 30 x 22 mm. Inflorescence: axillary dichasial cymes or flow­ers borne in clusters. Flowers bisexual or uni­sexual, hypogynous, Pedicel 2-5 mm long, pedicel and calyx often with a few short hairs. Disc 4-lobed, not adnate to perianth. Stamens 8. Fruit subglobose, ± 15 x 14 x 14 mm, glabrous; putamen smooth; pseudo-aril red, with 4 arms, 2 commissural arms reaching al­most to apex of putamen, 2 facial arms shorter.