An open-crowned succulent-branched spiny, glabrous, deciduous tree up to c. 9 m tall and 1 m in girth. Bark thick, rough. Branches ± terete, 2.5 cm thick, with paws of sharp stipular spines arising from spirally-arranged tubercles. Leaves alternate, sessile or subsessile. Leaf-blades oboyate-spathulate to oblanceolate, 10-25 x 3-8 cm, rounded or retuse at the apex, tapered to the base, entire, lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, obscure, thick, fleshy, with the midrib prominent beneath. Stipules spiny. c. 5 mm long, paired on each spine-shield. Cyathia in axillary pedunculate ‘cymes’ of 3 each, towards the tips of the branches, reddish; peduncles c. 1 cm long; cyathophylls 1-2 mm long, scarious. Glands transversely oblong, yellowish. Fruits triradiate, the lobes laterally compressed, c. 6 x 13 mm, smooth, glabrous, exsert on a pedicel, c. 1 cm long. Styles stout, united to above the middle, c. 2 mm long. Seeds ovoid-quadrangular, 4 mm long, smooth.

Fl. Per.: ‘In the hot weather (Parker).

Type: The figure of ‘Eli Calli’ in Rheede, Hort. Malab. 2: t. 43.1679.

Distribution: India, Burma, (?) Pakistan.