Shrub or small tree (2) 3–15 m. high, sometimes scandent; trunk armed with conical corky bosses c. 5 cm. in diam.; branches, leaves and inflorescences sometimes shortly rusty- or brown-pubescent; stems ± sparsely aculeate with straight or slightly recurved aculei 2–7 mm. long; rhachis of leaves usually unarmed or rarely with 1 or 2 short aculei. Leaves 15–37 cm. long; leaflets papyraceous, 3–4-jugate, opposite, with petiolule (1·5) 2–4 mm. long, the terminal one with petiolule up to 30 mm. long; lamina 7–15 × 3–6·5 cm., ovate to elliptic or oblong-elliptic, densely dotted with pellucid glands, obtuse to acute or shortly acuminate at the apex, margin crenulate to minutely and obtusely serrulate, acute or obtuse and sometimes ± asymmetric at the base; lateral nerves 8–12 pairs. Inflorescence a terminal panicle 8–15 cm. long. Flowers in cymose clusters (rarely solitary) with pedicels (1) 2–3 mm. long; buds 2 mm. long, ellipsoid-cylindric. Sepals 4, 0·5 mm. long, slightly united at the base, ovate to subcircular, imbricate, persistent, margin ciliolate. Petals 4, 2·5 × 1 mm., white, imbricate. Male flowers: stamens 4; filaments linear, bent inwards near the apex in bud; anthers c. 0·8 mm. long, dorsifixed, deeply 2-lobed at the base, laterally dehiscent; disk or gynophore short, glabrous; vestigial ovary ovoid, obsoletely lobed. Female flowers: petals c. 3 × 1 mm.; staminodes 4, vestigial, reduced to the aborted anthers; gynophore c. 0·4 mm. long; ovary of 1 carpel, c. 1·5 mm. long, oblique; style lateral, c. 1 mm. long, incurved; stigma discoid, black. Fruit 5 mm. in diam., red, globose, densely gland-dotted. Seed compressed-globose, black.