White Leadtree

Tops, leaves, pods and seeds of the plant are relished by cattle, sheep and goats. The leaves are good source of protein and carotene and can be employed to supplement alfaalfa leaf meal in poultry rations. The wood is burned for making charcoal.

A large shrub or small, unarmed evergreen tree, bark greyish brown, slightly fissured, young shoots covered by tomentum. Leaves bipinnate, stiuplate, stipule setaceous; rachis 7-15 cm long, pubescent, ending in a soft bristle, common rachis 15-20 cm long, pinnae 4-9 pairs, 5-10 cm long, hairy, ending into a bristle, leaflets 10-17 pairs, sessile, c.10-13 mm long, c.2-4 mm broad, oblique, linear, oblong, acute, glabrous or subglabrous, base oblique. Flowers in globose white heads, often in pairs, peduncle 2.5-3.8 cm long, head 1.5-2.2 cm in diameter. Calyx 2-3.5 mm long, tubular-campanulate, teeth short, villous. Corolla 10-11 mm long, petals free, valvate, spathulate, pilose outside. Stamens 10, much exserted, anthers eglandular. Ovary stalked, pubescent, style filiform, stigma minute. Pod straight, flat, 12.5-20 cm long, c.1.5-2.0 cm broad, minutely pilose, acute at the apex. Stipe 1-2.5 cm long Seeds 15-25, 5.6 mm long, c.4.5 mm broad, oval, glaucous, dark brown, with a prominent U-shaped mark on either side.

Cultivated and naturalised widely in tropical and subtropical regions.

Distribution: Probably native of Central America or South America, now pan-tropically cultivated. Sometimes cultivated in gardens of Punjab and Sind.

1500 m

Fl.Per. June-November.