Tree 6-24 m tall with a spreading crown; bark greenish-yellow, greenish-grey or reddish, smooth, papery and flaky (but has been described as grey and rough in part); slash yellow. Young branchlets with minute appressed white hairs. Leaves 7-9-foliolate; petiole 3-12 cm long; rachis minutely hairy, 7-18 cm long; leaflets 7-24 x 5.5-15.5 cm, oblong to elliptic or obovate, round to emarginate at the apex, broadly cuneate to rounded at the base, almost glabrous above, sparsely pubescent beneath; lateral nerves 7-10 on each side, reaching the margin; stipules 10-14 x 3-6 mm, ± oblong, with an oblong appendage at the base, soon falling; stipels 5-8 mm long, filiform, persistent; petiolules 6-12 mm long. Inflorescences paniculate, pendulous, 20-40(70) cm long, grey-velvety with minute hairs; branches numerous, 1-9 cm long; bracts small, ovate, falling very early; pedicels 8-11 mm long; bracteoles 2-3 mm long, ovate-oblong, up to 1 mm below calyx, soon falling. Flowers scented. Calyx minutely velvety; tube 6-8 mm long; lobes 5-7 mm long, ovate-oblong, rounded, overlapping at the base, laterals 4-5(8) mm wide, the upper pair united to within 1 mm of the tip. Corolla purple or lilac, white or cream at the base, veined, glabrous; standard 2-2.6 x 2.5-2.8 cm, almost round, with auricles 2-3 mm long and 2 shelf-like appendages 3 x 1-2 mm across the top of the 4-5 mm long claw; wing-blades 2.3 x 1.1 cm, with claw 4-7 mm long; blades of keel petals 2.2 x 1.1 cm with similar claws. Stamen sheath 2-2.5 cm long with free parts of filaments 4-8 mm long; upper stamen free and strongly bent at base; anthers 1.3-1.8 mm long. Disk short. Ovary 1-1.1 cm long, 8-10-ovuled, densely silky; stipe 5-6 mm long; style curved, glabrous except at base; stigma globular. Pod yellow-brown, woody, 18-47 x 3-5.1 cm, densely velvety when young, eventually glabrous, lenticellate, rugulose, 6-8-seeded. Seeds chocolate-brown to blackish-purple, transversely positioned, 2-2.4 x 1.5-2 x 0.4 cm, broadly elliptic or ± round, flattened, ± discoid; hilum placed at one end, surrounded by a yellow rim aril prolonged at one side into a ligulate process 1.5-3 mm long pressed against the funicle which is slightly enlarged at both ends.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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