Small to medium-sized deciduous tree up to 20 m tall; bole usually short and branchless for up to 5 m but sometimes up to 12 m, straight and cylindrical, up to 60(–150) cm in diameter; bark surface greyish brown, rough and fissured; crown flattened, open, with spreading branches; young twigs rusty brown hairy. Leaves alternate, bipinnately compound with 1–4(–5) pairs of pinnae; stipules awl-shaped, caducous; petiole 5–7 cm long, grooved above, near the base of upper side with a sessile gland, rachis 8–20 cm long, rusty brown hairy; leaflets in 3–6 pairs per pinna, almost sessile, obliquely broadly obovate to almost orbicular, up to 6.5 cm × 5 cm, rounded to slightly notched but mucronate at apex, leathery, densely yellowish or reddish brown hairy below. Inflorescence an axillary head on 3–6 cm long peduncle. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, white to greenish yellow; pedicel up to 2 mm long; calyx 4.5–8 mm long, with long tube toothed at apex, rusty brown pubescent outside; corolla 8–12 mm long, rusty brown pubescent outside; stamens numerous, 2.5–5.5 cm long, united at base, filaments reddish; ovary superior, gradually tapering into a long and slender style. Fruit an oblong, flat pod 10–30 cm × 3–6.5 cm, almost glabrous, indistinctly transversely veined, yellowish brown to reddish brown when ripe, opening with 2 papery valves, c. 6-seeded. Seeds flattened ellipsoid, 9–13 mm long.

Anthelmintic and purgative (root and bark decoctions)

PROTAbase: Albizia versicolor

Root and bark decoctions are used to treat swollen glands and venereal diseases. Dried and powdered roots are taken or sniffed to treat headache and sinusitis, and a root maceration is taken against gonorrhoea. A bark decoction is used to treat anaemia, and it is applied externally to treat ophthalmia and skin rash. A bark maceration is taken against cough, and bark powder is sniffed for the same purpose.