This is one of the largest trees of the savannahs and gives an enormous volume of timber. It reaches a height of 80 feet and girths of 12 feet are common. A girth of 26 feet combined with a 40 feet bole has been measured. It has a gregarious habit similar to _Khaya senegalensis_ on the edges of “fadammas” and in flat country where water lies during the rainy season. Hundreds of saplings may be found round these clumps. It is most readily distinguished from other species, at a distance, by the straight, light-grey stem, which is generally tapering in form, and by the shape of its crown which is triangular with a flat top. The crown is dense and dark, the limbs at an angle of about 30 degrees to the bole and the bulk of the foliage being on the summit. The bole is generally swollen at the base. It is a very fast growing species. =The Bark= is very light in colour, this being emphasised at a distance. It is rough with large even-sized scales. The bark of saplings, owing to the annual fires, is very thick and scaly, cracking in horizontal rings round the stem. This forms a highly protective covering. An oleo-resin, or balsam, exudes from the slash, which is dark crimson with small white streaks. =The Wood=, of which a great volume is yielded by the tree, is red-brown with darker streaks. In transverse section the rings are fairly well defined dark, regular lines, the pores are large, mostly single, widely and fairly evenly distributed, the rays fine, continuous, unevenly spaced but 3 to 4 to each pore, bending in a curious manner where they cross the lines of soft tissue, just visible with the naked eye. In radial section the rays are small light-reflecting bands and in the tangential section are clearly visible as fine ripples. The sapwood is whitish with a faint brown or pinkish tinge, and the rays are very clearly marked on the two vertical sections. This is a very good light-weight timber, very easily worked and not very durable or strong, but its large sizes, soundness and appearance enhance its value. It has a most pleasant cedar-wood smell. Weight 44 lbs. a cubic foot. =The Leaves= are 18 inches long, pinnate with some 6 pairs of large, pointed, dark-green, shiny leaflets. The young leaves are soft and pink in colour. =The Flowers= are conspicuous, chiefly at the top of the tree, in large, flat panicles, in December. The flowers stand erect on the horizontal panicle and consist of a 5-lobed, imbricate calyx, one sepal being smaller than the others, greenish-white in colour; 10 white stamens, 2 inches long and a long, white pistil which swells to form the seed-pod. The flower parts are borne on a stout club-shaped receptacle.