A medium sized tree. Young parts densely brownish, peltate, hairy, appearing as bronzed or coppery. Leaves long acuminate, peltate hairy, less so on older leaves but never glabrous; in the axil of basal nerves beneath small nectaries generally present; stipules linear, 2-3 mm long, 1 mm broad, caducous. Flowers solitary, axillary; pedicel tending to droop, 5-12 cm long, c. 2 mm across, not articulate or inconspicuously so in fruit; bracteole 1 near the base, without bracteate joint, linear. Young fruits and buds when cut exude yellow gum (latex); mature fruit densely peltate hairy, very hard, indehiscent, epicarp dehiscing. Seeds with dense, small, clavate or bulbous hairs.

Lectotype: India, Wallich 1888 F (K!).

Distribution: Coastal parts of the Indian Ocean and its islands, probably introduced in W. Africa, cultivated elsewhere.

It is commonly cultivated along the roadside in Karachi.