Changes

*Ambatch, ambach, pith tree, balsa wood tree (En).

*Large shrub or small tree up to 9(–12) m tall; stems swollen, pithy, glandular hairy and with woody prickles up to 1.5 cm long, often with dense mats of adventitious roots; outer bark green, smooth. *Leaves alternate, paripinnately compound with 9–20 pairs of leaflets; stipules broadly ovate, 10–13 mm long, auricled on one side; petiole and rachis together 4–16 cm long, densely bristly hairy and with short prickles; leaflets oblong, 8–26 mm × 4–10 mm, obliquely rounded at base, truncate or slightly notched at apex, glabrous above, shortly hairy below. *Inflorescence an axillary raceme up to 4.5 cm long, 1–4-flowered; bracts ovate, up to 7 mm long, bracteoles broadly ovate, up to 16 mm long. *Flowers bisexual, papilionaceous; pedicel 12–16 mm long; calyx glandular hairy, 2-lipped, the upper lobe 2–2.5 cm long and entire to slightly notched, the lower lobe 1.5–2 cm long and shallowly 3-toothed; corolla with rounded, notched, orange yellow standard up to 4.5 cm in diameter and yellow wings and keel; stamens 10, fused into a sheath split into 2 groups of 5; ovary superior, 1-celled, style slender, upturned. *Fruit a spirally coiled pod 10–14 cm long when unrolled, glandular hairy, 6–17-jointed. *Seeds kidney-shaped, up to 8 mm in diameter, dark purplish brown.

Lemmens, R.H.M.J., 2007. '''Aeschynomene elaphroxylon''' (Guill. & Perr.) Taub. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. In: Louppe, D., Oteng-Amoako, A.A. & Brink, M. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.