Description

• Large leguminous thornless shrub or small scrubby tree, forming dense stands with bushy crowns up to 6m height.
• Relatively short-lived, with lifespan of 20-40 years. Bark greyish with prominent lenticels
• Bipinnately-compound leaves with small grey-green leaflets, pungent when crushed. White and filamentous, produced in dense globular heads (1-2 cm across), resembling those of Mimosa.
• Explosive capsules, flat and thin, up to 20cm long by 2cm wide, ripening from green to brown, each containing 15-25 shiny brown seeds.

Uses

• Edible Plant Parts – fruit, leaves, seeds
• Leaf paste applied to poisonous stings and bites in Myanmar. Seeds used to treat diabetes and expel intestinal worms.
• Roasted seeds used as emollient and to increase menstrual flow.
• Wood used as firewood and charcoal.
• Also used as easily-digestible fodder for livestock.