Leguminosae

This plant is distributed throughout India, Bangladesh, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and the Malesian region (except Papua New Guinea).

It is a tree up to 50 m tall.

The leaves are arranged alternate. The primary rachis is a stalk of 18-42 cm long and the pinnate leaf comes with 14-31 pairs of leaflet. The secondary rachis is 8.7-11.5 cm long with 52-72 pairs of leaflet of the pinnate leaf. The leaf form is somewhat sigmoid, 6-10.5 mm x 1-2 mm. The leaflet base eared on proximal side, while its apex is acute.

There are 5-7 stalks per compound inflorescence, each is 8.5-33 cm long with 5.5-6.7 cm long head. The inflorescence became big and rounded at the time the flowers expand. The apical part is 3-4.5 cm in diametre. It has bisexual flowers with sepal up to 10.5 mm long and petal up to 11 mm long. The lobes are up to 2 mm while its strap-shaped pod is up to 50 cm long (including carpel stalk) and 4-5.5 cm broad. Its valves are woody but rarely twisted and have 6-15.5 cm long carpel stalks. The number of seeds is 12-19 per pod, lying horizontally across the width of the pod.

P. timoriana is found in lowland rain forest, mixed deciduous and dry evergreen forests, often along streams or the upper part of slopes. It prefers fertile soils with a pH between 5-7, at 0-600(-1300) m altitude.(1)

1. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2). 1998, Unesco.