Large deciduous tree 10-15 m or more tall. Bark smooth, grey, soft and spongy, with scattered thorns. Leaflets without prickles, deltoid, glands prominent at the base of each leaflet. Flowers orange-red (rarely cream), standard relatively short and broad, about 4-5.5 cm long, about 3 cm wide, strongly curved, keel about 2-2.5 cm long, sepals irregularly 2-lipped, deeply split, densely brown-hairy; spring. Fruit pods bead-like, with extended narrow constrictions between the seeds; seeds red with a black patch (hilum).
E South Africa.
Large tree with smooth trunk covered with scattered thorns; flowers orange-red or cream with standard strongly curved; fruit pods bead-like, contracted between the seeds which are bright red. This species has sometimes been mistakenly identified as the closely related E. lysistemon which has narrower standards (about 2 cm wide), keel petals about 1-1.8 cm long and flowers that tend to lie along the stem rather than spread away from it.
VIC: Burnley (College, 24 m in 1989, ptd 1863); Melbourne (Royal Bot. Gds 'A' Gate).
Source: (2002). Fabaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
