Large, deciduous tree with smooth, brown-grey bark, peeling off as small, irregular flakes; leaves exstipulate, pinnate, bright red when young, leaflets 2-3 pairs, lowest pair smallest; leaflets opposite, oblong or elliptic, quite glabrous except the veins beneath, base cuneate, margins inconspicuously serrate or subentire, apex acuminate; inflorescence racemes or panicles in the axils of fallen leaves near the ends of branches; flowers small, regular, polygamous; calyx 4-6, small, cup shaped lobes, ovate-oblong, acute, valvate or obscurly imbricated; petals absent; disk complete, glabrous, wavy; stamens 5-8, much exserted, filament more or less pubescent; anthers small glabrous; ovary 3-4 locular,1-3 ovuled, ovoid, tapering into a rigid, persistent style; stigma obsoletely 3-4 rayed; pistillodes present in male flowers; drupe, ovoid, dry, indehiscent, surface smooth or with blunt, hard, prickles; seeds 1-2, brown, enclosed in fleshy aril.