Adenanthera pavonina.
Family Mimosaceae (or Fabaceae s.l.).
The Red Bead or Curly Bean tree is from India and China.
Plants of the World Online lists 12 accepted species.
A. pavonina are deciduous trees from 6 to 14 m high.
There may be multiple stems and the bark is grey to brown.
The lateral branches are long and arching.
The bipinnate leaves have 2 to 6 opposite pairs of pinnae.
Each pinna has up to 21 alternating leaflets on very short stalks (petiolules).
The ovate to oblong leaflets are up to 2 or 3 cm long.
Leaflet bases are asymmetric.
The leaf midrib is grooved on the upper surface.
The near terminal, axillary inflorescences are typically a spike up to 15 cm long.
Flowers are about 6 mm long on a stalk 3 to 4 mm long.
The 5 sepals are fused for most of their length with 5 small pointed lobes at the top.
There are 5 yellow petals around 4 mm long.
They are oblong with a pointed tip that flares out or curves back slightly.
There are 10 stamens on straight filaments around 4 mm long that are fused at the base.
The tiny stalked gland on the tip of the anthers falls off.
The straight or curved fruit pods, up to 22 cm long, mature from green to black.
There are constrictions between the seeds.
When ripe they split into 2 sections that twist into a coil.
Each pod has up to 12 very hard, shiny, bright red and black seeds almost 1 cm across.
Pods, with the seeds may remain on the tree for a year.
J.F.
