Albizia Lebbeck

This attractive deciduous tree with a rounded, spreading crown and pale bark produces showy, fragrant, Mimosa-like, cream or yellowish-white flowers with numerous long stamens, which open in rounded clusters near the stem tips. Impressive, long, flat linear pods, persist after leaf-fall, the local name "Woman's tongues" referring to the sound the seeds make as they rattle inside the pods. In ancient Tamil culture, the flowers were made into a crown and were used to welcome home victorious soldiers. In traditional medicine, it is also psychoactive and an astringent and is also used by some cultures to treat boils, coughs, to treat the eye, influenza, gingivitis, lung problems, pectoral problems, and is used as a tonic.