Flora of Pakistan 36: 33-34 and Flora of Somalia 1: 72
Plants trees or shrubs, usually unarmed. Leaves evenly bipinnate, pinnae with 1- manypairs of leaflets; stipules often persistent, rarely absent. Inflorescences in axillary or racemosely arranged heads, the cenral flower often larger different in form from the others. Flowers 5-6-merous. Calyces dentate or, rarely deeply divided. Corollas with petals united to about midlength. Stamens numerous, red or white; filaments united below into a tube; anthers often glandular hairy but without an apical gland. Ovaries sessile, with numerous ovules. Pods linear to oblong or oblanceolate, with thickened sutures, the valves dehiscing from top to bottom along both sutures, the valves recurving.
Calliandra has about 200 species. They grow in tropical and subtropical regions, with most being native to to Central and South America, 1 in northeast tropical Africa, one in southwest Africa, and the others in Madagascar and India. Those native to Madagascar and India may belong in a different genus but the matter is still under investigation. Some species are widely cultivated.
Ali, in Flora of Pakistan, included 3 cultivated species from Pakistan. There are no species known from Somaliland. Calliandra gilbertii is native to Somalia.