Elephantorrhiza burkei

Entada burkei, commonly known as the elephant root or sumach bean, is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the mimosoid clade of legumes. It is native to southern Africa, in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and the Northern Provinces of South Africa. It grows on rocky slopes or ridges, in either woodland, grassland or scrubland. The species is named after the botanist Joseph Burke.

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The shrub or small tree has a dense rounded crown, and usually reaches between 1 and 3 metres in height. The grey bark turns brown and eventually blackish as the tree ages. The bipinnately compound leaves measure some 25 cm long, and bear 4 to 8 pinnae with 12 to 23 pairs of leaflets each. Their fragrant, creamy white to yellow flowers appear in early summer, and are pollinated mainly by the African honeybee. Mature specimens carry their flowering racemes on branched stems some distance from the ground, and the pods are consequently conspicuous. The flower spikes grow from the leaf axils and are 5 to 10 cm long. Their elongate, flattened, brown to reddish brown pods measure up to 30 cm by 4 cm. The shape of their seeds is variable, from elliptic to almost quadrate.