Description :

Caesalpinia sappan is small shrubby tree which can grow up to 10 m

tall. The roots are fibrous and wiry, lacking nodules and dark coloured. Its
trunk measured up to 14cm in diametre. The bark is with distinct ridges and
with many prickles. It is greyish brown when young while the twigs and buds
are hairy and brownish. The leaves are stipulate, bipinnate, measure up to
50cm long and with 8-16 pairs of pinnae up to 20cm long. The pinnae is with
Prickles at the base and with 10-20 pairs of oblong subsessile leaflets,
measuring 10-20 mm x 6-10 mm long, very oblique at the base and rounded
to emerginate at the apex. The flowers are in terminal panicles. The 5 merous
flowers are 2 2.5 cm wide and yellow. The sepals are haurless but the
petals are covered with soft hairs. There are 10 stamens while the filaments
are woolly-hairy in the lower half. The ovary is superior an hairy. The fruit is a
dehiscent pod, 2-5 seeded, oblong-obovate, measuring 7-9 cm x 3-4 cm,
strongly flattened, shiny and smooth with curved beak at the apex. It is
yellowish-green when young to reddish-brown when it rippens. The brown
seed are ellipsoid, flattened and measuring 18-20 mm x 10-12 mm.