A handsomely straight evergreen tree, 10-25 m tall. Leaves 15-33 cm long; leaflets 7-19, 3-12 cm long, sessile, entire or pinnatifid, olive green above, silver grey silky hairy beneath; margin recurved. Racemes 5-15 cm long, appearing on the old wood, solitary, 2 or a few forming a panicle. Flowers solitary, in twos or threes; pedicel 1-1.5 cm long, glabrous, leaving a permanent white lenticular scar. Sepals 1.5-2 cm long, hooded, at first all fused together except on one side, later on fused in twos basally and apically, free for the greater length in the middle, these pairs in their turn free from each other or slightly fused above, orange yellow to orange or golden yellow to lemon yellow with dark red inner base. Stamens sessile; connective not produced beyond the anther cells; anthers about 1 mm long. Disc semi-annular. Gynophore about 2-3 mm long. Ovary glabrous; style lemon yellow, 1-2.5 cm long, dilated at the apex and bearing a greenish-yellow 1 mm long stigmatic cone. Follicle 2-seeded, 1.5-2. cm long, about 1 cm broad, silver grey to olive green, dehiscent. Seeds 1-1.5 cm long, 0.5-1 cm broad, broadly winged, thin, ovate, non-endospermic.
Fl. Per: March-April.
Type: Described from Australia.
Distribution:- Silver or silky oak, an endemic of E. Australia, is extensively cultivated in tropics and sub-tropics as an ornamental, road-side tree and as a shade or wind break tree in tea and coffee gardens. Cultivated throughout Pakistan since long, especially in cantonments and satellite towns. It has recently been planted in large numbers in Islamabad.
Wood is used in furniture and panelling. Fruits and seeds contain Cyanophoric glucosides.
