Description from Flora of China Trees. Leaves abruptly pinnate,
alternate; stipules caducous, small; leaflets 10 to numerous
paired. Racemes or racemes arranged in panicles at ends of
shoots; bracts and bracteoles often caducous, colored, ovate-
oblong. Calyx tube narrowly turbinate; segments 4, imbricate.
Petals: only upper 3 developed, subequal in length, lower 2
reduced, scalelike, concealed at base of staminal tube. Perfect
stamens 3, connate into an ascending, curved tube or sheath from
middle downward; filaments short; anthers dorsifixed; staminodes
few, minute, at apex of sheath. Ovary stalked, stalk adnate to
calyx tube; ovules numerous; style elongated; stigma capitate.
Legume narrowly terete, indehiscent; epicarp thin, crustaceous;
mesocarp thick and pulpy; endocarp membranous, septate between
seeds. Seeds compressed, obliquely oblong or obliquely ovoid-
orbicular; cotyledons thick, fleshy; embryo erect. One species:
native to Africa, widely introduced and cultivated in the
tropics including China. (A