Tree, up to 30 m high, bark fissured, with milky white latex.  Leaves, simple, alternate, blades oblanceolate, 10-60 x 4.5-5 cm, apex acuminate, base cuneate, glabrous above, pubescent beneath; inflorescence in clusters at defoliated nodes or cauliflorus; flowers white with corolla 9-10 mm long; fruit ellipsoid, ovoid or subglobose 8-20 cm long, brown, rough; seeds solitary, broadly obovate, deep brown to black and shiny.

Shrub or small tree, up to 12 m high with spreading branches armed with straight spines 0.6-2.5 cm.  Leaves, petiolate 1-4 cm, bipinnate with glands between pairs of pinnae, pinnae 1 pair rarely 2, leaflets 12-20 pairs linear-oblong, 7-16 x 1.5-3.2 mm, apex obtuse or short abrupt point; inflorescence axillary in spikelike racemes, 5-10 cm long; flowers densely packed with pale yellow corolla 2.5 mm long; pod compressed, 7-20 cm x 1-1.6 cm, slightly curved, pale yellow; seeds brown 6 mm embedded in white sweet pulp.