If you cut into a this tree, you will see a dark-red liquid dripping down the trunk. The liquid is actually red sap, which is created by tannins – the same as what is found in wine. Therefore, wild teak trees have become commonly known as bloodwood trees. While it is unusual for a plant to "bleed" when it is cut, the bloodwood tree's red sap is designed to coagulate and seal wounds just like human blood.

It is a deciduous tree usually growing to 16 m tall, with dark brown bark and a high, wide-crowned canopy of shiny compound leaves. In favoured wetter locations the trees are typically about 18–19 m tall. The leaves appear at the time of the flowers or shortly afterwards. They are alternate, deep green, imparipinnate, with 11-19 subopposite to alternate leaflets, the leaflets 2.5–7 cm long and 2–4.5 cm broad. It produces an abundance of scented, orange-yellow flowers in panicles 10–20 cm long; flowering is in the spring. In southern Africa, this is usually just at the end of the dry season, often about mid-October. In poorly drained locations, the tree can still grow but it becomes more open in shape with leaves on the end of long branches - a 'stag-headed' appearance. t is referred to as a blood wood tree: when it is cut, it appears to bleed because of dark red sap.