This is a large species of the tree savannah, extending generally by way of the streams and “kurmis” up to above 11° N. On suitable soils it can be found in large groups forming a high forest with the crowns meeting over 60 feet overhead. The bole length is considerable, often 30 feet and the stem is slender and straight. Enormous isolated trees inhabit the more sheltered “kurmis” and reach a height of 80 feet with a girth of 12 feet. Such specimens have small root flanges and the crown is low and of great size, not affording very much shade owing to the spreading limbs. The large bipinnate leaves of distinctive form and the big, flat pods are readily recognised.
The Bark is greyish-brown, fairly smooth, with square or rectangular close-fitting scales, larger and rougher in old trees, especially at the base. The slash is light orange in colour.
The Wood is a light red, with streaks and areas of darker and lighter red and white. In transverse section the rings are well marked and wide apart, the pores are large, mostly twins or small groups and imperfect festoons, the soft tissue not linking them up in long lengths. The rays are fine, wavy and irregular in their spacing, closing up and separating, showing as red bands in radial and fine stippling in tangential section. The wood is soft, easy to saw and plane, the finish being smooth, with a sheen and able to take a polish. The weight is 42 lbs. a cubic foot.
The Leaves are 12-18 inches long, with an average of three opposite pairs of pinnae 6-7 inches long bearing four, five and six pairs of leaflets on the lower, middle and upper pinnae respectively. The leaflets are roughly rectangular in shape due to the curving forward of the mid-rib and the blade of the leaflet being wider on the inside at the base and on the outside at the middle. The leaflets increase in size from the lowest pair to the topmost pair, varying from 1-3 inches long. They are practically the same dark, rich green above and beneath, being reddish when young. The mid-rib and nerves are prominent on both surfaces.
The Flowers appear in March and April just as the new leaves are maturing. They are of both sexes on the same tree and the same shoot, borne in small heads at the end of numerous long stalks in the leaf axils, the whole shoot being some 12 inches long. The female is solitary in the middle of the head in a circle of male flowers which open slightly later. The female is white and has a corolla of 5-6 lobes in a tubular 5-lobed calyx, and a large number of radiating styles, white with black stigmas, like a Sea Anemone in form. The male is much smaller, with a minute calyx, small tubular corolla of five points, and a long slender column of bright red stamens with black anthers radiating in a tuft at the top of the column.
The Fruits are large, flat, light mahogany brown pods, up to 8 inches long and 1½ inches broad, shining and veined, and embossed at the 9-12 seeds which are ⅜ inch long, flat, oval, sharp-edged and dark brown, with a prominent “horse-shoe” mark. The pods fall and split and the seeds remain attached alternately to the two halves till blown or washed out.
ALBIZZIA CHEVALIERI Harms.—Katsari. LEGUMINOSAE.
A small tree up to 30 feet in height with a girth of 2-3 feet, common throughout the northern provinces. Owing to the similarity of its pods to those of Acacia macrostachya, it may be confused with this species in the dry season when the tree is leafless. The larger leaves, absence of thorns, corky bark and balls of flowers distinguish it at once on examination. It has an erect stem, often three or four stems from a low level, which repeatedly fork and form an open spreading crown, some of the branches extending widely and inclined to droop with the weight of the large leaves. The twigs are softly hairy.