Very large tree up to 55 m tall; bole up to 250 cm in diameter, sometimes much more, straight and cylindrical, often swollen in lower part, reaching up to 30 m to the first branches, sometimes with buttresses; bark surface brown to red-brown, deeply furrowed with rectangular scales, inner bark fibrous but brittle, exuding a sticky latex; crown heavy, rounded, heavy branches often abruptly spreading. Leaves arranged spirally, more or less in tufts at the ends of branches, simple; stipules absent; petiole 1.5–3.5 cm long, slender; blade elliptical to obovate, 8–16 cm × 4–7 cm, cuneate at base, rounded or obtusely acuminate at apex, with entire to slightly undulate margin, thinly leathery, glabrous, lateral veins numerous. Flowers in fascicles of 2–3 in the leaf axils, bisexual, regular; pedicel 1.5–2.5 cm long; calyx with 2 whorls of 4 lobes c. 6 mm long, outer ones glabrous but softly hairy at margins, inner ones softly hairy outside; corolla with c. 1.5 mm long, fleshy tube and 8 lobes, each lobe with 1 filiform median segment and 2 large, fleshy, imbricate lateral segments c. 4 mm long, creamy white; stamens 8, inserted on the corolla tube in front of the corolla lobes, free, filaments short, 8 longer staminodes alternating with the stamens; ovary superior, conical, softly hairy, 8-celled, each cell with 1 ovule, style short. Fruit a large, ovoid, smooth berry c. 8 cm long, brownish yellow when ripe, containing 1–3 seeds in a yellowish pulp. Seeds broadly ellipsoid or ovoid, slightly laterally compressed, 5–7 cm long, testa thick, woody, smooth, shining and brown in dorsal part, rough and bullate in ventral part (scar); endosperm absent.

PROTAbase: Tieghemella africana

The fat obtained from the seed kernels are used externally to treat rheumatism.