Trees, deciduous, up to 20 m tall; bark smooth and straightly grained. Branches with pith, yellow or yellow-brown pubescent when young, then glabrescent. Leaves odd-pinnate, 40-60 cm; petiole 7-13 cm; leaflets 13-27, opposite or nearly so; blades ovate-lanceolate, abaxially dark green, adaxially gray-green, smelly when rubbed. Panicles 10-30 cm. Flowers light green; pedicel 1-2.5 mm. Sepals 5, imbricate, 0.5-1 mm. Petals 5, 2-2.5 mm, base hispid. Stamens 10; filaments densely hispid basally, longer than petals in males, shorter than petals in females; anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm. Carpels 5; styles connate; stigmas 5-lobed. Samarium oblong, 3-4.5 × 1-1.2 cm. Seed in middle of wing, flat-globose. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Found in many habitats; 100-2500 m. All regions of China except Hainan, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Ningxia, Qinghai [widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere].