The large compound leaves can reach 47 cm in length (including the petiole), with between 4 and 6 pairs of leaflets.

The leaflets have 24–34 lateral veins set about 7 mm apart, which are depressed in the upper surface (i.e. they are bullate).

[4][5][6] This species was first described by the Australian botanist and Sapindaceae specialist Sally T. Reynolds, and published in the journal Austrobaileya in 1981.

[7] The species epithet smithii was chosen to honour the botanist Lindsay Stuart Smith who collected the type specimen in 1948, and was an authority on Sapindaceae in Australia.

Smith's tamarind is restricted to coastal rainforest in northeast Queensland from about Cooktown to just south of Innisfail, at altitudes from sea level to 450 m.[5][6] This species is listed as least concern under the Queensland Government's Nature Conservation Act.