A tree to 20 m. tall with a straight bole sometimes exceeding 1 m. in diameter and 10 m. or more tall in well grown specimens; bark rather fissured, shed in oblong papery scales. Leaves digitately compound; petiole up to 41.5 cm. long, glabrous or virtually so; lamina up to 36 cm. wide by about half as long; leaflets 3–7, chartaceous, ovate, up to 18.5 cm. long by 9 cm. wide, acuminate to caudate, with a cuneate to cordate, symmetric or asymmetric base, with serrate to crenate or entire margin, glabrous or puberulous, often with very fine silky-white scattered hairs and sometimes a few short crisped hairs; petiolules up to 7 cm. long; juvenile leaves (fig. 2/3, 4) simple, palmately lobed. Flowering spikes up to 30 together, usually less than 15, up to 25 cm. long, dense or somewhat lax; floral bracts scale-like, with or without an apiculum, or peg-like, nearly glabrous or densely pubescent. Fruits 4–6 mm. long, glabrous or puberulous, sometimes galled (see note on p. 1).