Tall tree with straight trunk and ± horizontal main branches; bark smooth, usually with scattered conical spines to 1.5 cm long; young branches glabrous or pubescent. Leaves 5–9-foliolate; leaflets narrowly elliptic-obovate, entire, acuminate, 7–20 x 1.8–6.5 cm, glabrous; petiole 5.5–25 cm long, at the apex expanded into an almost circular disk. Flowers often on leafless branches or present when the whole tree is leafless, in 1–15-flowered axillary clusters. Calyx 9–15 mm long, lobed, glabrous outside, pubescent inside. Petals pink or white, oblong, 2–3.5 cm long. Filament-tube 5–9 mm long; anthers coiled or reniform. Ovary glabrous or nearly so; style 2.5–3.3 cm long. Capsule ± woody, smooth, brown, oblong-ellipsoid, up to c. 26 x 11 cm. Seeds subglobose, c. 6 mm across.