Albizia forbesii flowers

The creamy white flowers of Albizia forbesii grow in clusters of fluffy, nearly hemispherical heads. The most noted parts are the strongly protruding stamens associated with Albizia flowers generally.

Each head is formed by a about six to ten flowers bearing small calyces and petals. In picture the long-stalked clusters of club-shaped buds are lemon cream-green, growing from bare, grey-barked branches. The stamens in the open flowers are about 1,5 cm long, the heads becoming 3 cm wide.

Flowering happens late in spring and early summer with or after the leaves.

The fruit is a broad, russet-brown, woody pod of characteristic flat and oblong shape, attenuating or tapering at the base, rounded to square at the tip. Dark transverse ridges, vein lines, occur upon the surface.

The pods are indehiscent, even after they have fallen. They are about 14 cm long and 5 cm wide, seen late in summer and autumn or persisting for long on the trees (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993).