The trunk is erect, 40–80 feet high, undivided but sometimes forking from the base.

The lower limbs spread drooping from the trunk; these are long, slender, sparingly branched, and the branches are four-angled, loosely covered with large spreading leaves.

Since the leaves are arranged in two ranks, the slender branches resemble petioles, bearing pinnae of a compound leaf; the leaves are further often recurved, and are deep green above, and almost white beneath.

The large blossoms expand in April, exhaling a rank odour reportedly resembling asafoetida when they first burst, but they become inodorous before the petals drop.

[2] Native to India, Nepal, southern China, Myanmar and Malaysia.