Archidendron lucidum

Archidendron lucidum is an evergreen tree of the legume family (Mimosoideae) reaching up to about 10 m tall, native to southern China, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and Indochina. It has smooth bark and bipinnate leaves with a few pairs of pinnae, each bearing several pairs of glossy, leathery, asymmetrically ovate to elliptic leaflets, the foliage notably lustrous, which gives the species its name. Small flowers with numerous long protruding white to cream stamens are grouped in rounded heads arranged in branched terminal panicles. The fruit is a distinctive curved or twisted woody pod, reddish at maturity, which splits to reveal shiny black seeds set against the contrasting inner pod wall. The species grows in evergreen broad-leaved forest, valley slopes and thickets in seasonally dry to moist subtropical lowland and hill country, and is occasionally planted for shade and ornament.