Shrubs or small trees up to 4 m tall; branches covered with papery bark; young shoots pubescent. Leaves alternate, petiole c.l-1.5 cm, 3-5 foliolate, pubescent; lateral leaflets oblong, orbicular or obovate, entire, 0.5-l.3 cm long, 0.3-1 cm broad; terminal leaflet petiolulate, 0.5-1.5 cm long, 0.5-l cm broad, obovate, oval or broadly elliptic, entire. Hermaphrodite and male flowers present on the same plant, sessile, white to red, 3-5 mm long. Bracts 2, opposite. Sepals 4, connate into an urceolate 4-lobed tube, lobes valvate, l-2 mm long, pubescent outside. Petals 4 free, spreading, acute, 3-5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad. Stamens 8, free, equal, usually shorter than the petals, 3-5 mm long, anthers basifixed. Disc toothed. Ovary 2-loculed; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit 0.5-l.5 cm long, red when ripe, marked with 4, alternately short and long white lines, subglobose, mucronate, mesocarp yellow, 4 lined, fused at the base on one side and up to the middle (or more) on the other side, dehiscing along the white lines from base upwards.

Fl. Per. April-July.

Type: “Belutschia, ubi Bayi appellatum, in collibus”, Stocks 439 (K).

Distribution: West Pakistan.

Common on calcarious rocks and dry river beds of coastal regions of Sind and Baluchistan. During the cold season the plant yields a tasteless and odorless gum.