Tamarind

About this plant

Description Tamarind trees feature (a) short stout trunks topped by bushy wide-spreading crowns with arching branches, (b) ferny, even-pinnate, compound leaves with light green leaflets, (c) summer bloom of red-veined cream to pale yellow flowers in drooping racemes and (d) plump cinnamon-brown bean-like seed pods filled, when ripe, with an edible sweet-sour pulp which has a variety of culinary uses. Tamarind is a leguminous tree in the family Fabaceae indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus Tamarindus is a monotypic taxon, having only a single species.