Terminalia is a genus of large trees of the flowering plant family, Combretaceae, comprising around 100 species distributed in tropical regions of the world. This genus gets its name from Latin terminus, referring to the fact that the leaves appear at the very tips of the shoots. Trees of this genus are known especially as a source of secondary metabolites, e.g. cyclic triterpenes and their derivatives, flavonoids, tannins, and other aromatics. Some of these substances have antifungal, antibacterial, anti-cancer and hepatoprotective indications.

Terminalia sericea is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree which grows up to 9 m, but individual trees can reach 23 m in height. Terminalia sericea has reddish-brown branches. The leaves are crowded at the ends of branches, narrowly obovate-elliptic with smooth margins, blue-green above, paler below, densely covered in silvery hairs. It flowers mostly from September to January. The flowers are in axillary spikes and are pale yellow to creamy white. The fruit is an oval nut surrounded by a flat wing.