Medium-sized deciduous tree up to 30 m tall; bole straight and cylindrical or irregular, up to 100 cm in diameter; bark surface grey, smooth or shallowly fissured, often with numerous lenticels; crown flattened, umbrella-shaped; young twigs shortly hairy. Leaves alternate, bipinnately compound with 1–3(–4) pairs of pinnae; stipules awl-shaped, caducous; petiole 2–4.5 cm long, grooved above, shortly hairy, with a sessile gland near the middle of upper side, rachis 2–4 cm long, sparsely pubescent; leaflets in 3–7(–8) pairs per pinna, with petiolules 0.5–2 mm long, obliquely rhombic-ovate, up to 7(–9) cm × 3(–4) cm, obtuse to acute at apex, minutely pubescent to almost glabrous. Inflorescence an axillary head on 2–4 cm long peduncle. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, white; pedicel 1.5–7 mm long, finely greyish hairy; calyx 1.5–2.5 mm long, with long tube toothed at apex, pubescent outside; corolla 3–5.5 mm long, with 2–3 mm long tube, pubescent outside; stamens numerous, 6–13 mm long, united at base, filaments white; ovary superior, 1.5–2 mm long, with c. 0.5 mm long stipe, gradually tapering into an up to 12 mm long style. Fruit an oblong, flat pod 12–26 cm × 3–4 cm, with stipe up to 8 mm long, pubescent or almost glabrous, indistinctly transversely veined, glossy or dull brown when ripe, opening with 2 papery valves, c. 10-seeded. Seeds flattened globose to ellipsoid, 8–12 mm × 6–8 mm.

Antipyretic (bark)

PROTAbase: Albizia glaberrima

The bark is applied externally to treat fever. A cold water extract of the root bark is used to treat bilharzia, and a root decoction in a mixture with other plant ingredients is used as a bath to treat anaemia. The dried pulverized twig bark is applied to scarifications to treat blenorrhagia. A decoction of the twig bark is drunk against chest pain. The ash of burned roots is applied to scarifications to treat liver complaints.