Author: (F. Muell.) Hattink
Morphological description
Liana or shrub; branchlets shortly pubescent or glabrous, with a few small, recurved prickles. Stipules c. 1 mm long, 2 mm wide, appressed, caducous.
Leaves: bipinnate; rachis 13–25 cm; pinnae 5–8 pairs, unarmed. Leaflets alternate, petiolulate (c. 1 mm), 5–8 pairs per pinna, oblong, 15–30 by 7–16 mm, oblique at the base, rounded at the apex, glabrous or hairy.
Inflorescences supra-axillary and terminal, paniculate, up to c. 30 cm long, rachis puberulous or glabrous; bracts subulate, c. 3 mm long, hairy; pedicels 3–5 mm, articulated c. 0.5 mm below the top (scortechinii Caesalpinia ).
Flowers: Hypanthium c. 1 mm deep and 4 mm wide, shortly hairy or glabrous. Sepals almost glabrous, 5–6 by 2 mm. Petals yellow, oblong, 4–6 by 2–3 mm, shortly clawed (claw up to 2 mm long); filaments c. 7 mm; anthers c. 1.5 mm long, villose. Pistil pubescent or glabrous, sometimes rudimentary; ovary c. 2 mm long, 1- or 2-ovuled; style c. 6 mm, hairy in the lower part; stigma not wider than the style, ciliate.
Pods obliquely rhomboid or broadly ellipsoid, 3–5 by 2–3 cm (incl. 1–6 mm wide wing at the upper side), base rounded to cuneate, apex rounded, black, prominently veined, 1-seeded (scortechinii Caes pod Reinw9/4 ).
Seeds almost reniform in outline, flat, c. 18 by 15 mm.
Distribution
Australia (Queensland, New South Wales); in Malesia: Papua New Guinea (Western, Southern Highlands and Central Provinces).
Habitat & Ecology
Rain forests, secondary forests, riverbanks and along roads, up to 810 m altitude.