Piliostigma reticulatum

Piliostigma reticulatum (DC.) Hochst. (Fabaceae, Cercidoideae), camel's-foot or West African camelfoot, is a small to medium deciduous tree of the Sudano-Sahelian and Sudanian savannas of West and Central Africa, ranging from Senegal and Mauritania east to Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda and south to northern Cameroon. It typically reaches 4-10 m tall with a short, often crooked trunk and a spreading crown of dark grey, deeply fissured bark. The alternate, leathery leaves are characteristically bilobed at the apex with two rounded lobes joined for two-thirds to three-quarters of their length, 5-12 cm long and broadly cordate at the base, with prominent palmate venation. The plant is functionally dioecious, bearing terminal racemes of fragrant cream to pinkish-white flowers 1.5-2.5 cm across with five crinkled petals. Mature pods are woody, flattened, indehiscent, dark brown and 15-30 cm long, containing many flat seeds embedded in a sweetish pulp eaten by livestock.