[5][6][7][8] The Latin and English names rufinerve and "redvein" refer to the reddish down on the veins.

[5][6][7][9] It is a small deciduous tree growing to a height of 8–15 m, with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter.

The bark on young trees is smooth, olive-green with regular narrow vertical pale green to greyish stripes and small greyish lenticels; on old trees, it becomes rough and grey.

The leaves are three-lobed (occasionally five-lobed with two additional small basal lobes), double serrated, 8–16 cm long and 6–16 cm broad, matt to sub-shiny dark green above, paler below with small tufts of rusty hair on the veins when young, becoming glabrous when mature; the petiole is greenish (rarely pinkish), 3–5 cm long.

It does not display much variation as a species but a notable cultivar is 'Erythrocladum' with yellow-green in both its leaves and the stripes of its bark.