Small tree, up to 5 m tall, shoots with brownish or rusty-coloured hair, numerous prickles. Leaves simple, palmately lobed, 30–60 cm wide, adult leaves glabrous or with scattered stellate hairs on both surfaces, deeply palmate, often digitate in young plants; petiole often prickly. Inflorescence a panicle of cymes, up to 45 cm long, young with reddish-brown to rusty-coloured tomentum; bracts c. 2.5 cm long, oblong, usually deciduous; pedicels 2.5–3 cm. Flower buds exceeding 6 mm in diameter. Fruit a dry indehiscent capsule, c. 15 × 12 mm., ovoid, glabrate, ribs not prominent, crowned by stout style.

Common small tree in evergreen or mixed deciduous forests at elevations up to 1,500 m a.s.l. No cultivation of this plant has been recorded, but can be propagated by hardwood cutting.
Young flower buds are harvested at the end of the rainy season and cooked in hot and spicy curries for their somewhat bitter flavour.