Plant: Small tree 10-40 ft (3-12 m) tall, single or multiple stems, with feathery leaves, showy pink and white tufted flowers in spring to early summer, and dangling clusters of legume pods in winter. Sprouts from rootcollar and root suckers.

Stem: Twigs slender to stout, lime green turning brown with light dots (lenticels), no terminal bud, bark glossy, thin, light brown turning gray with raised corky dots and dashes.

Leaves: Alternate, feathery, finely divided, and fern-like, deciduous, bipinnately compound, 6-20 in (15-50 cm) long with 8-24 pairs of branches and 20-60 leaflets per branch, leaflets not symmetrical, midrib is nearer one margin and runs parallel with it.

Flowers: May-Jul(-Nov). Terminal clusters at the base of the current year’s twigs, showy bright pink, with white, feathery tufts, small pom-poms, 1.5-2 in (3.5-4 cm) long, composed of 15-25 sessile flowers with numerous filaments, sweet fragrance.

Fruits and seeds: Jul-Jan. Legume pod, each 3-7 in (8-18 cm) long, flat with bulging seeds, in large clusters, initially light green turning darkbrown in fall and whitish-tan in winter, pods splitting along the edges to release 5-10 oval seeds.

Ecology: Occurs on dry to wet sites and spreads along stream banks, prefers open conditions, although persists in shade. Colonizes by rootsprouts and spreads by abundant animal- and water-dispersed seeds, seldom found above 3,000 ft elevation.

Resembles no other trees because of finely divided leaves.