Pterocarpus santalinoides

Pterocarpus santalinoides, locally known as mututi or as African or false sandalwood, is a medium-sized evergreen tree of the Fabaceae family reaching 9 to 12 metres in height, with a trunk up to about a metre in diameter and a spreading, somewhat irregular crown. The bark is grey-brown, fissured and flaky. Leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, 10 to 20 cm long, with five to nine alternate, glossy elliptic leaflets each tapering to a short drip-tip. Showy orange-yellow, fragrant pea-like flowers are borne in branched terminal and axillary panicles. The fruit is highly distinctive: a flat, indehiscent winged pod 3.5 to 6 cm long with a papery wing extending around about three-quarters of the seed margin, designed for wind and water dispersal. The species has an unusual amphi-Atlantic range, occurring in riverine and gallery forest across much of tropical West and Central Africa and again across northern South America from the Guianas through Amazonia and the Llanos.