Shrubs or small trees; leaves bipinnate, leaflets small and numerous or larger and from few pairs to one; stiuples often persistent, rarely absent. Inflorescence globose heads, or terminal racemes. Flowers 5-6 merous, with long stamens, red, white and showy. Calyx dentate or rarely deeply divided. Petals united to the middle. Stamens numerous, up to 100, more or less united into a tube and long¬exserted, anthers mostly glandular hairy. Ovary sessile, ovules numerous; style filiform. Fruit linear, straight or nearly so, margins thickened, 2 valved, dehiscing from both the margins, continuous inside. Seed obovate or orbicular, compressed.
A genus with about 200 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical America, Madagascar, W. Tropical Africa, India and E. Pakistan.