Functionally unisexual tree, to 18 m tall, to 27 cm dbh; outer bark thin, flaking in firm sheets, lenticellate; inner bark moderately thick, reddish; sap slowly forming viscid, cloudy droplets after slash, with strong, sweet aroma; stems glabrous, prominently brown-lenticellate. Leaves imparipinnate; petioles flattened above with sharp margins; petiolules thickened at both ends; leaflets 5-9 (13), mostly oblong to oblong-elliptic, acuminate with blunt acumen, acute to rounded at base, often +/- inequilateral, 10-20 (27) cm long, 5-9 (12) cm wide, glabrous except for minute papillae. Panicles axillary, near stem apex, the branches ferruginous; staminate inflorescences somewhat larger than pistillate (to 24 cm long); flowers 5-parted, sessile, 3.5-5 mm long; calyx to 2 mm long, cupulate, 5-lobed, minutely pubescent, the lobes acute; petals lanceolate, yellow-green, thickened medially on outside, ca 3 mm long, erect to somewhat spreading at anthesis; stamens 10, alternately long and short, the longest to 2 mm long, the shortest to 1.3 mm long, scarcely longer than the prominent, pubescent disk; ovary ovoid, densely pubescent; style short, the ovary and style together ca 2.7 mm long; stigma 5-lobed, persisting in fruit. Capsules drupaceous, bearing 1-5 pyrenes, ovoid to depressed-globose, with 4 or 5 lobes (rarely 2- or 3-lobed), mostly 2-3 cm diam, red at maturity, usually rounded at both ends, the carpels 4 or 5, each dehiscing by a single valve, the valve falling free to expose the white mesocarp surrounding pyrene; pyrenes black, l per carpel, 1-seeded, ovoid in face view, irregular in side view. Croat 11109, 14822. Small bees, possibly Trigona, have been seen visiting the flowers. The fruits are edible.