It has mostly been cultivated in drier parts of the country from where it escaped and became wild in many localities. The British in India used it extensively as a roadside and avenue tree. It has an almost straight trunk and spreading branches, covered with dark grey, cracked bark. The compound leaves are characteristic. They arise, crowded at the end of branchlets.
Leaflets are alternative and opposite, oblique or subfalcate with toothed edges and pointed tips.
Tender young leaves lend the tree a charming, soothing, green and shining canopy. Flowers are small, whitish or yellowish, appearing in large numbers in drooping axes from the leaf axils. Their sweet smell attracts buzzing swarms of insects as long as the bloom lasts. The green fruit, turning yellow on ripening, is small and pulpy, with a stone containing a single seed. Almost every part of the tree is bitter and finds medicinal use, so much so that the bitterness of the tree is proverbial and it is believed that the more bitter, the better.