Moderate sized, soft wooded, tree, about 3-5 m tall; bark peeling off like paper, white with pink tinge; trunk erect, branches spreading, marked with large leaf scars; leaves large, palmately 5-lobed, glabrous above, velvety beneath, base broadly cordate, lobes entire, acuminate, crowded at the ends of branches; petioles very long, hairy; stipules caducous; panicles terminal, erect, dense, many flowered, glandular pubescent; bracts lanceolate, deciduous; flowers small, polygamous, pubescent, pale yellow or green with bright red center; bisexual flowers mixed with many males; calyx tubular or campanulate, sepals 5 lobed, often coloured, acute; petals absent; staminal column formed by 10, connate filaments, anthers 2-lobed; carpels 5, sessile or stipitate, opposite the sepals, ovules 2-many; styles connate at the base, stigma peltate; follicles 5, oblong spreading, woody, densely pubescent, covered with stiff stinging bristles, red when ripe; seeds albuminous, oblong, dark brown.