Stadmania oppositifolia subsp. rhodesica is a small to medium sized tree, 4 to 8 m tall, although it can grow up to 20 m in tropical Africa. The branches are light grey; the bark scaly, giving the trunk a mottled appearance.

The leaves are up to 150 mm long, paripinnately compound, with 2 or 3 pairs of opposite or nearly so, oblong to elliptic leaflets, 50–85 × 20–35 mm; apex rounded, base tapering; margin entire; hairless above, slightly hairy below, dark glossy green; petiole up to 55 mm long; petiolules 2–4 mm long. 

Flowers are small, yellowish, without petals, in catkin-like racemes, about 10 mm long, in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are male or female, on the same tree and sometimes in the same raceme. Flowering is in early summer (October to December).

Fruits are 3-lobed capsules, with usually only 1 or 2 locules developing. The fruits are velvety, green at first, red when mature, splitting open to reveal a chestnut-brown, globose or ovoid seed, 10–12 mm in diameter, completely enveloped in a green to red aril that loosely covers the seed. Fruits ripen in mid to late summer (December to March).