Tree or shrub, up to at least 8 m tall; bark dark, fissured. Leaves (4-)-6-18-foliolate, glabrous; rhachis up to 10 cm long, winged; leaflets opposite to alternate, ovate to obovate or oblong-lanceolate, sessile, obtuse to retuse at the apex, entire, leathery, reddish when young. Flowers reddish or yellowish, in subcapitate sometimes branched 1-5 cm long inflorescences. Male flowers with c. 5 stamens; anthers c. 1.5 mm long. Female flowers with ovary c. 0.6 mm in diam. Drupes subglobose, c. 4 mm in diam., apiculate, red.
P. aethiopica yields a gum that is of some economic importance and that is also exported. The species is very closely related to P.lentiscus in the Mediterranean region.