Decaisnea insignis (Griffith) Hook. f. & Thomson in Proc. Linn. Soc. 2: 350. 1854 & in Fl. Brit. India 1: 107. 1872. Slakia insignis Griffith, Itin. Notes 187. 1848.

Shrubs, 3 - 5 m tall; stems erect, simple or forked. Leaves pinnately compound with 5 - 10 pairs of opposite leaflets; petioles 10 - 24 cm long; leaflets ovate-oblong, acute at base, acuminate at apex, entire, 5 - 10 x 2 - 4 cm, glabrous, glaucous beneath; petiolules 2 - 8 mm long, somewhat swollen at base. Inflorescences racemose, 10 - 25 cm long; pedicels 1 - 2 cm long; bracts subulate, caducous. Flowers 1 - 2 cm across, pendulous, pale yellowish green with slight purple tinge towards apex. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 10 - 20 x 2 - 4 mm. Petals absent. Male flowers: Stamens 6, connate basally into a column, 1.5 - 2 cm long; pistillodes minute. Female flowers: Staminodes minute, ca 3 mm long; carpels 3, free, about half as long as the sepals, oblong, glabrous; stigma oblong; each carpel maturing into a separate diverging fruit. Fruits oblong, cylindrical, somewhat rounded at base and apex, recurved, 3 - 5 x 1 - 1.5 cm, fleshy. Seeds numerous in 2 rows, ovate to rounded, ca 10 x 6 mm, glabrous, brownish black.

Fl. May - June; Fr. July - Aug.

Distrib. India: Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Bhutan and China.

Notes. Fruits edible and used by Lepchas of Sikkim.