Deciduous tree to 30 m tall, with regular horizontal tiers of branches eventually into a spreading crown. Leaves digitate with 5-8 unequal leaflets 6-20 cm long. Flowers 2.5-3.5 cm long, creamy white in clusters. Fruit 8-15 cm long, hanging in branches, ellipsoid, thinly woody, green maturing black, eventually splitting into 6(6) sections exposing black kidney-shaped seeds embedded in dense mass of silky fibres.