Leaves 15′—30′ long, with stout pubescent petioles, and 11—17 oblong-lanceolate acute or acuminate leaflets 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, finely serrate except at the unequal rounded base, glandular and sticky as they unfold, at maturity thin, yellow-green and rugose above, pale and soft-pubescent below; turning yellow or brown and falling early in the autumn. Flowers: staminate in thick aments 3′—5′ long; calyx usually 6-lobed, light yellow-green, puberulous on the outer surface, ¼′ long, its bract rusty-pubescent, acute at apex; stamens 8—12, with nearly sessile dark brown anthers and slightly lobed connectives; pistillate in 6—8-flowered spikes, constricted above the middle, about ⅓′ long, its bract and bractlets coated with sticky white or pink glandular hairs and rather shorter than the linear-lanceolate calyx-lobes; stigmas bright red, ½′ long. Fruit in 3—5 fruited drooping clusters, obscurely 2 or rarely 4-ridged, ovoid-oblong, coated with rusty clammy matted hairs, 1½′—2½′ long with a thick husk; nut ovoid, abruptly contracted and acuminate at apex, with 4 prominent and 4 narrow less conspicuous ribs, light brown, deeply sculptured between the ribs into thin broad irregular longitudinal plates, 2-celled at the base and 1-celled above the middle; seed sweet, very oily, soon becoming rancid. A tree, occasionally 100° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and sometimes free of branches for half its height; more frequently divided 20° or 30° above the ground into many stout limbs spreading horizontally and forming a broad low symmetrical round-topped head, and dark orange-brown or bright green rather lustrous branchlets coated at first with rufous pubescence, covered more or less thickly with pale lenticels, gradually becoming puberulous, brown tinged with red or orange in their second year and marked by light gray leaf-scars with large black fibro-vascular bundle-scars and elevated bands of pale tomentum separating them from the lowest axillary bud. Winter-buds: terminal ½′—⅔′ long, ¼′ wide, flattened and obliquely truncate at apex, their outer scales coated with short pale pubescence; axillary buds ovoid, flattened, rounded at apex, ⅛′ long, covered with rusty brown or pale pubescence. Bark of young stems and of the branches smooth and light gray, becoming on old trees ¾′—1′ thick, light brown, deeply divided into broad ridges separating on the surface into small appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, turning darker with exposure, with thin light-colored sapwood composed of 5 or 6 layers of annual growth; largely employed in the interior finish of houses, and for furniture. The inner bark possesses mild cathartic properties. Sugar is made from the sap, and the green husks of the fruit are used to dye cloth yellow or orange color.