Deciduous tree 2.7–21(–40) m tall, rarely a shrub, producing a clear hard gum; bole to 1 m in diameter, bark smooth and grey, often powdered with white dust and flaking in large plates, so variegated with white and red; slash orange or pink, sapwood white, exudate slight, watery; ultimate branchlets 9–18 mm thick, purplish grey; bud-scales triangular, 7–12 mm long, 3.5–7 mm wide. Leaf-blade orbicular in outline, strongly 5-lobed, 8–36 cm long, 10–34 cm wide, the lobes triangular–acuminate, subequal, the apical lobe 4.5–13 cm long, 3.5–10.5 cm wide, base deeply cordate, edges of the sinus overlapping, sinus 2–5 cm long, glabrous to subscabrid with sparse stellate and simple hairs above (densely tomentose when young), softly tomentose with sparse to very dense, fine stellate hairs beneath; petiole terete, 6–18 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, tomentose to pilose with a mixture of fine, small stellate and simple hairs with large, stout, pointed hairs filled with yellowish gum; stipules caducous. Inflorescence usually borne with the leaves, 3–8 per stem, each 15–32 cm long, 6–11 cm wide, indumentum sticky, as petiole, the fluid often exuded, the hairs appearing capitate; peduncle with numerous branches, 1.5–5(–7) mm thick at base, lowest branch 3–11 cm from the base, 7–12 cm long, with 7–9 partial peduncles, each (3–)5(–7)-flowered; bracts caducous, elliptic and acuminate, 3–7 mm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, velutinous; pedicels 1.5–5 mm long. Flowers with perianth pale or yellowish green, sweetly scented, campanulate, 3–4 mm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, (4–)5 triangular teeth each 1 mm long and wide, sometimes slightly reflexed, indumentum as inflorescence outside, inside largely of stout simple hairs. Male flowers with androphore ± 1.5 mm long. Fruit often with all 5 follicles developed, each cylindrical, 4.5–8.2 cm long, 1–1.3 cm wide, with a rostrum 0.3–1.6 cm long and a basal stipe 1.7–2.5 cm long, thickly tomentose, yellow-brown, sticky and fragrant; when dehisced 2.5–3 cm wide, revealing a mauve, tomentose inner surface; seeds ellipsoid, 7 mm long, 4–7 mm wide. Fig. 1/5, 11, p. 6.