Certain fish eat the poisonous fruit This species grows as a shrub or small tree, some 5–8 m (16.4–26.2 ft) tall.

The flowers are bisexual, occurring in axillary or terminal inflorescences, either pseudoumbels with peduncles or in racemes.

The quite large fruits are compressed laterally, with a narrow, thinner, sharp-edged part in the apex half.

[1] The specific epithet name of Harmandiana is in honour of Julien Herbert Auguste Jules Harmand (1844-1915), who was a French clergyman and botanist (Mycology and Lichenology).

[1] The plant grows in the mangrove and back-mangrove formations of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and lake.

It grows on soils derived from metamorphic sandstone bedrock, at altitudes of 25–30 m (82–98 ft) above sea level.

In the Khone Falls section of the Mekong, in southern Laos, close to where the river becomes fully Cambodian, two species of carp-like fish, Leptobarbus hoevenii and Tor cf.

tambra the eyes become red and scales become whiter if poison is present, and if recognised, then the fish can be made edible by discarding the head and guts, then dried in the sun or marinated.