Pericopsis Thwaites

Trees or less commonly large shrubs. Leaves (5)7–12(13)-foliolate; leaflets mostly exceeding 3 × 1.5 cm., usually appearing alternate but occasionally in opposite pairs; stipels generally present, single at base of lateral leaflets, paired and unequal at base of terminal one, sometimes obscured or lacking (not in E. Africa). Flowers in terminal panicles or rarely simple racemes; bracts and bracteoles ± linear-oblong, up to 3 mm. long, caducous. Calyx campanulate below, with 5 teeth 2–4 times as long as the tube, the upper 2 remaining connate for most of their length, the whole calyx eventually falling as one piece. Petals subequal in length, 1.2–2 cm. long; standard suborbicular with a short claw, the limb usually reflexed; wings with a short claw up to 3 mm. long and a well-developed auricle at the base of the limb; keel-petals with a claw up to 5 mm. long and a well-developed auricle, free or lightly coherent along lower margin. Stamens free; anthers dorsifixed. Intrastaminal disc present. Ovary stipitate, sometimes shortly so, ± 2–8-ovulate; style incurved, hooked at apex, glabrous, with a small terminal stigma. Fruit ± flat, oblong to linear-oblong, ± winged along upper margin and generally also along lower margin, the proximal part often constricted to form a false stipe, the larger pods often also constricted about the middle, slightly woody, indehiscent. Seeds flat, oblong to suborbicular, reddish; hilum small; radicle short, straight.