English Lao
Botanical descriptions Habitat and ecology Distribution
| Diagnostic characters : | Large deciduous or evergreen trees, bark lenticellate, exudates red-brown. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, rachis swollen at the base, leaflets opposite. Flowers bisexual, pea-like, violet-purple. Fruit a thick pod. |
| Habit : | Deciduous or evergreen tree up to 25 m. tall, about 45 cm. in DBH; bark light brown, outer bark c. 3 cm. thick, dark brown, inner bark red, sap wood straw. |
| Trunk & bark : | Trunk lenticellate, bark dark brownish-red, inner bark yellow, with red-brown sap. . |
| Branches and branchlets or twigs : | Branches terete, glabrous, brownish when dry, lenticellate, and at the first nearly flat. |
| Exudates : | Reddish-brown sap. |
| Leaves : | Imparipinnately compound leave, alternate, crowded at the apex of branchelets, rachis up to 7 cm. long, swollen at the base. Leaflets 5-9, opposite, ovate to elliptic, apex acute to acuminate, base acute, margin entire, young leaves redish-brown, blade coriaceous and glabrous on both surface. Midrib grooved above, prominent below. Primary vein single, secondary veins obtuse, about 8 pairs, tertiary veins reticulate. Rachis small about 5-7 cm. long. |
| Inflorescences or flowers : | Inflorescence are racemes, axillary and terminal, glabrous, up to 20 cm. long. Flowers violet-purple grouped at the top of inflorescence, glabrous, pedicel about 7 mm. long, calyx dark brown. |
| Fruits : | Fruit is a thick pod, 2-3 X 5-7cm in length, thick walled, glabrous, red on the outer surface then brown, later dehiscent. |
| Seeds : | Only one red seed. |