Parkinsonia aculeata L.

Often cultivated for its showy flowers.

Shrub or a small tree, up to 4 m high, armed, glabrous. Leaf bipinnate; rachis short and ending into a spines, often with a pair of stipular spines at its base, pinnae 2-6, c. 15-35 cm long, often with much. flattened rachis, leaflets 25-30 pairs, c. 4-5 mm long, obovate-oblong, petiolule 1-2 mm. Inflorescence axillary racemes, racemes shorter than the leaf. Flower pedicellate, pedicel c. 7-15 mm. Calyx c. 7-8 mm long, segments distinct almost to the base, oblong, obtuse. Petals 5, yellow, 15-18 mm long, with a short claw. Stamens 10, free, flattened, villous at the base. Ovary silky hairy, ovules numerous. Pod linear, contracted between the seeds, c. 7.5-10.0 cm long, c. 6-10 mm broad, glabrous, 1-6 seeded. Seed oblong, smooth, mottled.

Distribution: It is naturalized almost all over W. Pakistan. It is a native of tropical America, widely introduced in tropics.

Fl. Per.: March-May.