Pterolobium
(from pteron, a wing, and lobos, a pod; the pods are produced into a wing at the extremity). SYNS. Quartinia, Reichardia. ORD. Leguminosae. A genus comprising four species of tall, climbing, stove shrubs, armed with recurved prickles; they are natives of tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia. Flowers white (or yellowish?), small, racemose; racemes at the tips of the branches, loosely paniculate; calyx segments five, imbricated; petals five, spreading, imbricated. Pods sessile, compressed, samaroid, indehiscent, the apex produced into an oblique, oblong or falcate wing. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets small, numerous; stipules small or inconspicuous; bracts very caducous. P. indicum--the only species introduced--requires culture similar to Caesalpinia (which see).
P. indicum (Indian). fl. yellowish, axillary only from the extreme leaves, which gives them an appearance of a large, terminal, leafy panicle. l. alternate, abruptly bipinnate, 5in. to 6in. long, 3in. broad; pinnae opposite, four to eight paris, oval, entire, smooth, 1/2in. long, 1/4in. broad; petioles armed with three prickles. East Indies. SYN. Caesalpinia lacerans.