Plants shrubs or small trees, armed with pairs of stipular thorns or single thorns formed by the very short leaf rachises, without glands. Leaves bipinnate, leaflets usually opposite, sometimes with a very short rachis and very reduced leaflets. Inflorescences axillary racemes, often short. Flowers yellow or whitish; sepals 5, slightly overlappinr or merely touching; petals 5, subequal except the upper one usually somewhat modified (often with a longer claw); stamens 10, filaments alternately longer and shorter, pubescent near the base; ovary stipitate, with 2-6 ovules. Pods flat or turgid, sometimes constricted between the seeds, tardily dehiscent or indehiscent, usually with papery or thinly coriaceous brown valves; seeds usually lying obliquely or longitudinally, hard.
Parkinsonia has about 14 species. Most are native in the drier parts of America but one is native in southern and southwestern Africa and three in eastern and northeastern Africa.