Native to tropical Africa, now widely cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, Maui.
Habit
Spreading, foetid shrubs 1-5 m tall.
Leaves
Leaflets (8)9-16(-18) pairs, slightly smaller at either end of the rachis, elliptic-oblong, 2-6.5 cm long, 0.8-2.5 cm wide, pubescent or upper surface sometimes glabrous, apex obtuse to subacute, aristate-mucronate, base obliquely rounded to subcordate, petiolar nectaries absent, stipules reflexed, ovate-cordate, 6-17 mm long, tardily deciduous.
Flowers
Flowers in racemes 10-40 cm long, pedicels 4-10 mm long, bracts petaloid, brownish green to blackish green, (8-)10-17 mm long; calyx lobes oblong-obovate, 9-14 mm long; petals bright yellow, subequal, oblong-obovate to obovate, 17-27 mm long; filaments of 4 median stamens 2.5-3.3 mm long, those of 2 fertile stamens 3-4 mm long, that of abaxial stamen 4-5 mm long; anthers of 4 median stamens and central one sterile.
Fruit
Pods spreading or ascending, chartaceous at maturity, linear-oblong, strongly compressed, 7-12 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, dehiscent, the cavity with narrow membranous interseminal septa.
Seeds
Seeds pale tan overlain with brownish green, compressed, 6-8 mm long, smooth or obscurely pitted, crackled with age, the areole 3-4 mm long.
