Albizia chinensis (Osbeck)Merr.

Habit: Tree

Deciduous trees; to 25 m high; bark 5-6 mm thick, surface brownish-grey, smooth, horizontally furrowed; blaze pink; branchlets minutely golden tomentellous. Leaves bipinnate, alternate, stipulate; stipules 2.5-4 x 1 cm, free, lateral, obliquely cordate, crisped, orange-pink, pubescent, with filiform tail, base much dilated at one side, caducous; rachis 18-35 cm, slender, grooved above, pulvinate, sparsely minutely tomentellous, with a gland near its base on upper side, pinnae 4-20 pairs, opposite, even pinnate, 8-12.5 cm long, slender, sparsely tomentellous; with a gland in between each pairs or on distal 2-3 pairs; leaflets 50-90, opposite, even pinnate, estipellate, sessile; lamina 3-6 x 15-18 mm, falcate-lanceolate or falcate, base oblique, subtruncate or obtuse, apex acute, margin entire, ciliate, glabrous above, sparsely tomentellous and glaucous beneath, chartaceous; midrib starting and ascending along the distal margin, lateral nerves obscure. Flowers bisexual, white, in globose heads, 2-6 in axillary fascicles or arranged in terminal and axillary panicles; peduncle slender, pubescent; pedicel 0.5-1 mm, pubescent; bracts stipular, persistent; calyx 2.5-5 × 1-2 mm, funnel shaped, pubescent, teeth short; corolla 6-10 mm long, funnel shaped, pubescent, lobes 5, ovate-lanceolate, stamens many, yellowish, monadelphous at the base, tube slightly shorter to or longer than the corolla tube; ovary ca. 1.5 mm long, sessile, glabrous; style upto 3 cm long. Fruit a pod, 15-20 x 2.5 cm, strap shaped, flat, reddish-brown, glossy, straight or wavy along the margin, very shortly stalked, apices round or tapering, slightly bullate over the seeds; seeds 8-20, 6-10 x 5-8 mm, ovate, flat, dull brown.

Kerala: All districts