Deciduous, medium-sized tree up to 30 m tall; bole cylindrical or slightly tapering with irregular swellings, up to 3 m in diameter; outer bark more or less smooth, grey; crown rounded; main branches often tapering and ascending. Leaves arranged spirally, palmately compound with 5–8 leaflets; stipules caducous; petiole 5–15 cm long; petiolules 0–3 cm long; leaflets broadly elliptical to lanceolate, medial ones up to 20 cm × 8 cm, margins entire, glabrous or sometimes rough, with 10–20(–many) pairs of lateral veins. Flowers solitary in leaf axils at end of branches, bisexual, regular, 5-merous, large, showy, fragrant; flower bud erect to horizontal, elongated to cylindrical, 15–24 cm × 1.5–2.5 cm; pedicel 2–3 cm long, jointed, green; calyx tubular, tube fitting tightly around the petal bases, with a marked annular swelling at base, c. 2 mm wide, lobes linear, 15–22 cm × 10–12 mm, reflexed and twisted, green and rough outside, dark red and hairy inside; petals free, linear, 14–24 cm × 1–1.5 cm, twisted, yellow; stamens numerous, fused at base into a cylindrical or tapering tube 4–6.5 cm long; ovary superior, conical to ovoid, densely hairy, style 16–22 cm long, dark red, glabrous densely hairy at base, usually fitting loosely in staminal tube and persistent in fruit, stigma 3–5 mm in diameter, irregularly lobed, red. Fruit an oblong to ovoid or globose berry 10–30 cm × 6–15 cm, with thick, woody, fibrous wall, ridged, blackish, many-seeded. Seeds kidney-shaped, laterally flattened, up to 12 mm × 11 mm × 8 mm; seedcoat hard. |
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