Description:
Andromonoecious shrubs or treelets to 5 m tall. Leaves once-pinnate (to irregularly decompound or 2–3-pinnate in some forms), (25–)35–55 cm long; leaflets (5–)7–9, medium to dark green above, paler beneath, often variegated pale yellow or whitish, especially along the margin, papyraceous, elliptic, ovate or obovate, often broadly so, 5–15(–20) × 2.5–12 cm, the apex obtuse to broadly acute or acuminate, the margin spinulose-serrate, slightly thickened and minutely revolute, with teeth (1–)1.5–5 mm long, the base broadly cuneate to attenuate, often somewhat oblique (or when leaves more than once-compound, the ultimate divisions and apex usually narrower, and the margin irregularly incised or laciniate as well as spinulose-serrate); petiolules 1–3.5 cm long; rachis articulated at petiolule bases; petiole 7–18 cm long, clasping at the base, evidently alate for 1.5–3 cm with membranous wings. Inflorescence terminal, pendent, glabrous throughout, the bractlets usually caducous, the primary axis short, 3–6 cm long, the secondary axes 5–10, the lower 1–4 irregularly scattered and the upper ones forming a terminal umbel, each axis ca. 20–40(–60) cm long, tertiary axes 8–12 per secondary axis, grouped in 1–3 verticils (or occasionally solitary or subopposite), each (1.5–)3–12 cm long, fourth-order axes (peduncles) 1–4 per tertiary axis, each ca. 1–2 cm long, bearing a terminal umbellule of 8–20(–25) hermaphroditic, protandrous flowers and often 1(–2) lateral umbellules of ca. 5–15 functionally staminate flowers on a reduced peduncle, the pedicels 4–10 mm long (often shorter in staminate flowers). Calyx cupuliform, 0.3–0.5 mm high, the rim undulate and inconspicuously 5(–6)-toothed, hyaline. Corolla oblong-elliptic in bud, the petals 5(–6), deltoid-oblong, 2–2.5 mm long (smaller in staminate flowers). Stamens as many as petals, the filaments slender, 0.5–1.5mm long, the anthers 1–1.5mm long (somewhat smaller in staminate flowers). Ovary 3–4(–5)-carpellate, urniform to turbinate, ca. 1.5 mm high at anthesis; styles as many as carpels (vestigial in staminate flowers), nearly free to the base, erect at anthesis, diverging as they become receptive, recurving in fruit. Mature fruit rarely seen, subglobose, 4–5 mm high, ribbed when dry.
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