Parkia
(named in honour of Mungo Park, 1771-1805, the celebrated African traveller). SYN. Paryphosphoera. ORD. Leguminous. This genus comprises about eight species of showy, unarmed, stove trees, two or three of which inhabit tropical Asia and Africa, and four or five tropical America. Flowers very numerous, in large heads; upper ones yellowish, tawny, or red; lower ones sterile, white or red; peduncles sometimes solitary, axilary, very long, pendulous, sometimes several at the apices of the branches. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets small, numerous, and in pairs. The species best known in gardens are P. africana and P. biglandulosa. For culture, see Inga. P. africana. African Locust, or Nitta-tree. fl. crimson, in biglobular heads. February. l. with usually twenty pairs of pinnae, each pinna bearing about thirty pairs of obtuse, pubescent leaflets, with a gland at the base of the petiole, and with a small, umbilicate gland between two or three of the upper pairs of leaflets. h. 30ft. to 40ft. Africa, 1822. An agreeable beverage is prepared from the sweet, farinaceous pulp surrounding the seeds, and sweetmeats are also made of it.
P. biglandulosa (biglandular). fl., upper ones brownish-yellow or red, lower sterile ones whitish; calyx 1/3in. long, the tube glabrous, the teeth pilose. Immature pod downy. l., rachis downy, 1ft. or more long; pinnae forty to sixty, 3in. to 4in. long; leaflets linear-ligulate, 150 to 200 to a pinna; petioles biglandular. Malay Peninsula.