Description: Trees or shrubs, unarmed.
Leaves alternate, bipinnate, with glands on petiole and/or rachises; pinnae opposite or rarely reduced to only 1; leaflets mostly opposite, or in some species with few leaflets per pinna at least some leaflets alternate.
Inflorescences axillary, sometimes cauliflorous or ramiflorous, flowers in pedunculate heads, sometimes forming terminal panicles; heads few- to many-flowered. Flowers usually 5-merous, bisexual, all uniform. Calyx campanulate, shortly lobed. Corolla tubular with spreading lobes, usually longer than calyx. Stamens numerous, filaments united into a tube about as long as corolla, free parts exserted.
Pods ± linear to oblong, often curved to ± circular, flattened, fleshy, leathery and wrinkled, valves twisted after dehiscence; seeds ellipsoid, black, glossy, without an aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 35 spp., India, Malesia, Aust. Aust.: 9 spp. (7 spp. endemic), Qld, N.S.W. Ref. Nielsen (1982).
Text by G.J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves with usually 2–5 pairs of pinnae; stalked petiolar and jugary glands on primary and secondary rachises | Archidendron grandiflorum |
| Leaves with 1 or rarely 2 pairs of pinnae; sunken gland usually present on petiole, otherwise glands absent | 2 |
| 2 | Pinnules strongly asymmetric, lanceolate to ovate, reticulate veins visible but not prominent; pinnae with usually 6 pinnules, all more or less opposite; stamens more than 25 mm long | Archidendron hendersonii |
| Pinnules more or less symmetric, elliptic, more or less equal at base, reticulate veins prominent; pinnae with 2–5 pinnules, lower ones usually alternate; stamens less than 20 mm long
Back to 1 | Archidendron muellerianum |
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