A usually deciduous tree, up to 30 m tall, with a straight trunk and rather diffuse crown; root system with well-developed taproot and few superficial lateral roots; trunk up to 70 cm in diameter; bark up to 10 mm thick, reddish-brown inside; young branches reddish-tomentose, glabrescent. Leaves bipinnate, with 5-9 pairs of pinnae and 6-16 pairs of leaflets per pinna; stipules large, bipartite, branches pinnatifid or bipinnatifid; petiole up to 7 cm long, rachis up to 40 cm long, both reddish-pubescent; leaflets oblong-elliptical, 10-25 mm x 4-10 mm, sessile, base acute, obtuse or rounded, apex rounded-emarginate, finely pubescent, glabrescent, rather glaucous below, shiny above. Inflorescence an axillary, unbranched raceme, 15-30 cm long; bracts linear, 10-12 mm long, persisting until flowers open; pedicel 1.7-4 m long; calyx deeply 5-lobed, lobes ovate, 10-15 mm x 5-6 mm, densely velvety outside, glabrous inside; petals 5, obovate, 15-25 mm x 10-12 mm, spreading, yellow, hairy towards the base inside; stamens 10, free, filaments 10-15 mm long, woolly at base, anthers dorsifixed; ovary sessile, 5 mm long, hairy, 4-8-ovuled, style filiform, 12 mm long. Pod elliptical, sharp-pointed, 10-15 cm x 2-4 cm, flat, with a wing-like extension 4-5 mm broad on each suture, dull-brown when ripe, later blackish, 4-8-seeded, indehiscent, often hanging in bunches below the leaves. Seed flattened oblongoid, 10-12 mm x 5 mm, transversely positioned.

AgroForestryTree Database

The bark is used in an infusion for coughs.