A deciduous shrub or small tree, sometimes multistemmed, up to 13 m in height, with a dense, rounded crown and white poisonous latex, monoecious.Bark light brown, dark brown, chestnut or purple-grey and fissured on the bole, pale grey and smooth on the branches.Twigs fairly stout, light brown, lenticellate.Buds perulate (furnished with protective scales).Leaves alternate.Stipules c. 1 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, soon falling.Petioles 0.5–2 cm long, adaxially canaliculate.Leaf blades 7–25 × 3–10 cm, obovate or elliptic-obovate, acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, crenulate, firmly chartaceous, dark green and glossy at first, later becoming bright yellowish-green, sometimes reddish-tinged; lateral nerves in 10–15 pairs.Inflorescences terminal, 2–13 cm long, lax, shortly pedunculate; male bracts 1.5 mm across, orbicular-ovate, apiculate; female bracts 2 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, aristate.Male flowers: sepals 3, c. 1 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, subacute, yellow or yellowish-green; stamens 2–3 mm long, anthers c. 1 mm long, yellow.Female flowers: sepals 3 × 1 mm, elliptic-oblong, mucronulate, otherwise ± as in male flowers; ovary 2 mm in diameter, ellipsoid-subglobose, smooth; styles 3, connate at the base.Fruit 4–5 × 5–7 cm, 3-lobed, inflated, crustaceous, ridged on each valve, otherwise ± smooth, green at first, later yellowish.Seeds c. 12 mm in diameter, ovoid-subglobose, smooth, fawn, mottled brown.