A shrub or small tree up to 5 m high.Twigs sparingly stellate-pubescent to subglabrous, cinnamon-ochreous at first, later becoming greyish-tawny in colour.Stipules 5 mm long, subulate, sparingly stellate-pubescent, soon falling.Petioles 1–7 cm long, stellate-pubescent at first, later glabrescent.Leaf blades 4–10 × 2–3 cm, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, shallowly and somewhat irregularly glandular-serrulate on the margins, wide-cuneate to rounded at the base, with a pair of small stipitate or subsessile discoid glands on upper surface at the junction with the petiole, chartaceous, minutely glandular-punctate, glabrous or subglabrous on both surfaces, if subglabrous then with very few scattered stellate hairs on the lower midrib and lateral nerves; 5-nerved from the base, lateral nerves in 10–18 pairs, scarcely prominent.Male and female inflorescences and flowers unknown.Fruits 2.5–3 × 2–2.5 cm, obovoid- or ellipsoid-subglobose, scarcely 3-lobed, loculicidal, densely echinate, subglabrous except for the processes; processes up to 7 mm long, subulate, curved, sparingly stellate-pubescent.Seeds 2 × 1.5 × 1 cm, ovoid-ellipsoid, dull, light brown, tawny-mottled, recalling those of the genus Ricinus, as indeed also do the fruits.