Habit : A small tree with very corky bark on old stems, braches armed with stout prickles, which fall off in a few years, and leave a whitish, more or less smooth bark.
Leaves :
Trifoliate, usually unarmed, occasionally with a few scattered prickles, petioles 10-20 cm long, stipules caducous.
Leaflets pale green or whitish, the terminal rhomboid-ovate, regular, the lateral very unequal-sided, all more or less glabrous above, downy beneath.
Inflorescence and Flowers :
Flowers in small racemes towards the end of the branches, forming a dense head, pedicels fascicled.
Calyx more or less pubescent, at length bilipped, corolla scarlet in colour, papilionaceous, the wings minute, falcate.
Fruits : Pods torulose, seeds 2-5.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : April-May
Significance :
The soft wood is used in the production of light boxes.
