[3] The tree is some 30 m (98 ft) tall and about 80 cm (31 in) in diameter at breast height, with a straight trunk which is fluted near its base and having no buttresses.

Its bark is scaly and reddish-brown in color with lenticels in vertical rows, its slash showing as pinkish-brown with copious white latex.

Leaves are alternate and simple, up to 25 x 8 cm in clusters at the ends of branchlets, oblanceolate with obtuse-rounded apex, and decurrent base.

Fruits grow from the trunk, are flattened sub-globose in shape (oblate spheroid), some 15 x 8 cm, with a hard exocarp and whitish pulp, holding numerous seeds.

The bark of this species is an effective anthelmintic against larvae of the parasitic worm Haemonchus contortus, while the seeds contain alkaloids and saponins.