Adenanthera pavonina

A. pavonina is a medium-sized to large deciduous tree, 6-15 m tall and up to 45 cm diameter, depending on location;generally erect;bark dark brown to greyish, the inner bark soft, pale brown, and the slash soft, white and fibrous;crown spreading;multiple stems common, as are slightly buttressed trunks in older trees, upper bole sometimes spirally fluted. Leaves are very large, bipinnate with a large swollen pulvinus;2-6 opposite or sub-opposite pairs of pinnae, each with 8-21 alternate leaflets on short stalks;leaflets 2-4.3 x 1 cm, oblong to ovate, with an asymmetric base and blunt apex, dull green above, light green beneath, turning yellow with age. Flowers in narrow spike like racemes, 12-15(-25) cm long;flowers fragrant, small, petals 5, oblong or elliptic, cream or whites lightly connate at the base, stamens 10, as long as the petals, the anthers tipped with minute glands. Legumes linear, flattened, 15-22 x 1.3-1.5(-2) cm with slight constrictions between seeds, dark brown, turning black upon ripening, leathery, dehiscent from top to bottom by twisting valves to reveal 8-12 hard-coated, vivid scarlet seeds, 7.5-9 mm in diameter, lens shaped;seeds adhere to pod. Ripened fruits can remain on the tree for long periods, sometimes until the following reproductive season (Orwa et al., 2009;PROSEA, 2012).