An evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 3–4 m tall and wide (4.5-7.5 m); leaves even-pinnately compound, leathery, 3 to 5 pairs of 1 inch leaflets. The flowers are very small, in axillary panicles, and dioecious; the raceme of the males is amentaceous with 1-flowered bracts; calyx 5-cleft; stamens 5; anthers subsessile and 4-cornered ; the females' raceme more lax; calyx 3-cleft; ovary 1 to 3-celled; stigmas 3, and rather thick. The fruit is a very small, pea-shaped drupe, reddish when ripe, with a smooth, somewhat bony nut.

Analgesic, antitussive, carminative, diuretic, expectorant, odontalgic, sedative and stimulant (resin).

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King's American Dispensatory

Alpha-pinene (resin, exudate, sap); aucubin, choline (seed); cycloartenol, kaempferol, lupeol, myricetin, quercetin, shikimic acid, tannin (leaf).

Can reduce bacterial plaque in the mouth, heal peptic ulcers, for bronchial troubles and coughs and as a treatment for diarrhoea, to boils, ulcers, ringworm and muscular stiffness.