Shrub, nearly 2 m in height, branches sometimes slightly prickly. Leaves bipinnate, 10-45 cm long, pinnae 4-12 pairs, opposite, c. 7.5 cm long. Leaflets 1.2-1.3 cm long, 3-7 mm broad. Flowers in erect terminal raceme, variously orange yellow and red coloured, often claw red, centre of limb crimson, red or golden red. Filaments very long, bright red. Pod 5-7.5 cm long c. 1.7 cm broad, straight.

Fl. Per.: April-September.

Distribution: Native country uncertain, probably South America; introduced in Tropics, cultivated extensively in W. Pakistan.

It is a beautiful ornamental shrub, reputed to have medicinal properties also. Roots are used for infantile convulsions, flowers for intestinal worms, coughs and chronic catarrh and leaves are reputed to have purgative action and abortifacient. (Bor and Raizada, Some Beaut. Ind. Cl. Shrubs, 56. 1954).