Burkea

Burkea africana is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the legume family (Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae), reaching 8-15 meters in height with an open, flat-topped to spreading crown. The bark is dark grey to almost black, rough and corky, with deep longitudinal fissures and conspicuous lenticels. Young branchlets are densely covered in rusty-brown velvety hairs, a feature that distinguishes the tree even from a distance. Leaves are alternate, bipinnate, with 2-5 pairs of pinnae each bearing 5-12 alternate leaflets that are obovate to elliptic, 2-5 cm long, leathery, and dull green. Tiny cream-white to greenish-yellow flowers are densely arranged in pendulous spike-like racemes 10-20 cm long, appearing with or just before the new leaves. The fruit is a flat, indehiscent, oblong pod 3-5 cm long containing a single seed. It is a dominant tree of the African miombo and Burkea-Terminalia woodlands across much of sub-Saharan Africa.