Trees to c. 35 m tall or shrubs; bole to 15 m high, DBH to 102 cm. Branches densely covered in a whitish or yellow-brown to golden, or less frequently reddish, tomentose indument, yellow-green in vivo (black in sicco) when young, becoming glabrous, pale grey-brown when old, lenticels present. Leaves alternate, (12–)15–30 cm long, with (11–)13–19 alternate leaflets; petiole and rachis pale yellow-green in vivo, light to dark brown in sicco, tomentose at first, glabrescent; petiole 1.8–3.5 cm long; stipules caducous, 8–12 × 2–3 mm; leaflets (20–)30–80(–95) × (8–)15–32 mm, decreasing in size towards the proximal part of the leaf, the distal leaflet slightly longer than the rest; peti- olule 2–4 mm long, pale brown to yellow-green in vivo, light to dark brown in sicco, tomentose; lamina elliptical to broadly elliptical, lanceolate, oblong or rarely obovate, at times orbicular in smaller proximal leaflets, thinly coriaceous, base rounded or narrowly to broadly cuneate, margin plane to slightly revolute, apex obtuse or acute, weakly retuse or sometimes emarginate, venation eucamptodromous, with c. 6–12 lateral veins per side; upper and lower surface bright mid-green in vivo, dull green to brown in sicco, upper surface matt, glabrescent, the midrib forming a groove, the lower surface matt, tomentose, higher-order veins forming a fine network, midrib prominent. Inflorescences terminal, a panicle, 5–11 cm long, composed of 1 to many compact, sparsely branched paniculate units, each subtended by a well-developed pinnate leaf-like bract or reduced, caducous, scale-like bract, terminal axes of the inflo- rescence usually long, curved, secundiflorous and sub-spicate, with flowers in 2 adjacent rows with alternating insertion, the axes densely yellowish-brown pubescent; peduncle to 5 cm long. Flowers subtended by a caducous, puberulous, triangular scale-like bract, 0.6–1.2 × 0.3–0.4 mm; pedicel 0.1–1 mm long, puberulous; bracteoles ovate to elliptic, 1–1.2 × 0.3–0.4 mm, apex acute, sparsely puberulous, yellow to orange-brown in sicco, caducous; calyx yellow-green, sometimes dark purple at the base in vivo, becoming yellow to reddish-brown or black in sicco, sparsely puberulous, persisting on fruits, 3–4 mm long, fused in the lower 2/3, the 2 upper lobes fused to form a single, rounded unit, c. 1.5 × 3 mm, the apex shallowly emarginate, the 2 lateral lobes acute-triangular, c. 1.3 × 1.2 mm, the lowest lobe acute-triangular, keeled, c. 1.8 mm × 1.5 mm; petals gla- brous, white in vivo becoming orange in sicco; standard petal pandurate, 3.5–6(–7) × 2.5–3.5(–5) mm, claw 1–1.5 mm long, apex notched; wing petals 4–5.5(–6.7) × 1.5–2(–2.7) mm, claw 1–1.3 mm long; keel petals 4–5(–5.8) × 1.6–2(–2.3) mm, claw 1.5–2 mm long; androecium glabrous, monadelphous, 4–5(–6) mm long; stamens 9–10, filaments free for upper 1/5–1/3; gynoe- cium 4–6 mm long, sparsely covered in long yellowish hairs; stipe 2–3 mm long; ovary c. 2 mm long, with up to 3 ovules; style c. 1 mm long. Fruits pale-yellow green in vivo, red-brown in sicco, the body elongate-elliptical, 7.5–12 × 1.5–3.0 cm when single-seeded, or 15 – 16 cm long when multi-seeded, base cuneate, apex acute or rounded, surface densely longitudi- nally ribbed, glabrous; stipe 4–10 mm long, glabrescent; style caducous; seeds (immature) sub-reniform, flattened, brown, 8–9 × 5 mm.