Size: shrub, 6-8' average height at maturity
Buds: whitish, 2 pairs of scales, usually 3 bundle scars, terminal sometimes absent, in which case there is a long-persistent fruit pedicel or its scar between the buds
Leaves: deciduous, opposite, palmately compound with 5-7 leaflets, each 3-8" long, 1.25-4" wide, nearly sessile, tending toward obovate, acuminate, margins crenate-serrulate, dark green above, grayish and pubescent below, fall color often a vivid yellow
Twigs: stout, gray-brown, raised light brown lenticels
Flowers: monoecious, white with pinkish stamens and red anthers,in cylindrical panicles 8-12" long, 2-4" wide
Fruit: several shiny light-brown seeds in a 1-3" pear-shaped light-brown capsule
Bark: gray stems
