Description: A medium-sized tree with a straight trunk that is usually cylindrical trunk but somewhat rather irregular, and which frequently branches near the base. The bark has clear vertical fissures. Leaves are alternate, compound, usually with 9-13 leaflets, including a terminal one. Leaflets are light green or whitish on the underside, rounded, and the tip has a very small indentation. The base of the petiole is swollen, green, and cylindrical, and the stipule green, but readily falls off to leave a scar on the branchlet.

Reproduction: Flowers are white, pea-like, produced from January to March. The fruits, maturing from March to May, are flattened pods with 1-3 seeds whose outlines in the pod are very clear; they are dispersed by wind.

Distribution: Found only on the drier half of the isthmus, from Gamboa south, but it is never common. Occasionally seen along roads in the Canal area, or in farmland woodlots.

Similar Species: Compound leaves whose stipule has a swollen, green, cylindrical base are the characters of the pea family, Fabaceae. A good mark for Dalbergia is the tiny indentation at the tip of the leaflets (other Dalbergia have it, but this is the only common tree species of the genus in central Panama). There are many legumes, and learning them all is difficult. Other especially similar species include LK acospa Acosmium panamense LK2 and LK diphro Diphysia robinioides, LK2 but both have leaflets lacking the indentation.

Uses: This is the wood used commonly by Indians of the Canal area for carving. The wood is hard, heavy, lustrous in color.

Descripción: Árbol de 10 a 20 m de alto. Copa umbelada y con follaje disperso. Tronco ramificado a baja altura. Corteza exterior gris y fisurada. Hojas imparipinnadas y alternas, con 7-15 folíolos, alternos en el raquis. Folíolos de 3-12 x 2-4 cm, oblongos a ovados, con ápice emarginado, bordes enteros y base obtusa. Los folíolos son verdes en el haz y blancos o grises por el envés. Estípulas foliares y deciduas, dejando cicatrices en las ramitas. Pecíolo de 3-5 cm de largo y pulvinado en la base. Flores blancas. Frutos en legumbres aplanadas y aladas, de 5-17 cm de largo, verdes, tornándose marrón o negros al madurar. Semillas 1-5.

Datos Ecológicos: La especie crece a bajas elevaciones, en bosques secos o húmedos. En Panamá se encuentra en las provincias de Coclé, Colón, Darién, Los Santos y Panamá. Deja caer parcialmente sus hojas durante la estación seca, pero las repone a inicios de la estación lluviosa. Florece y fructifica de enero a octubre. Las flores son visitadas por abejas, mariposas y otros insectos. Las semillas son dispersadas por el viento.

Especies Parecidas: A menudo se confunde con LK acospa Leptolobium panamense LK2 , pero en L. panamense los folíolos no son blancos o grises por el envés. LK vataer Vatairea erythrocarpa LK2 tiene flores muy parecidas, pero V. erythrocarpa es un árbol de mayor tamaño que tiene raíces tablares en la base.

Usos: La madera es fina de color rojizo y con líneas negras, presenta una sustancia aceitosa que le da una apariencia lustrosa, por lo cual se emplea en la fabricación de muebles, cajas de joyería, artículos deportivos, artesanías, mangos de paraguas, cuchillos y otras herramientas. El cocobolo es una planta que tiene asociación con bacterias que producen nódulos fijadores de nitrógeno en las raíces, lo cual le ayuda a mejorar las condiciones del suelo.

Tree, to 20 m tall, ca 30 cm dbh; outer bark coarse, becoming fissured and loosened in age; wood dark, hard, heavy. Leaves alternate, pinnate; stipules caducous, ovate-elliptic, to 2 cm long, persistent on juvenile plants; petioles to 6 cm long, puberulent; rachis 10-20 cm long; leaflets 7-15, alternate on rachis, oblong to ovate-oblong, obtuse and often slightly emarginate at apex, obtuse to rounded at base, 6-10 cm long, 2.5-3.5 cm wide, appressed-pubescent below when young, becoming glabrate in age. Panicles axillary or terminal, appearing just before or at same time as new leaves; branches, pedicels, and calyces sparsely to densely pubescent, the trichomes short, brown, appressed; pedicels 3-4 mm long; calyx 5-7 mm long, lobed to one-third its length, weakly bilabiate, the teeth acute; petals white, 1-1.4 (2) cm long; standard emarginate, clawed; keel petals fused at apex; stamens fused into a single tube with an open slit apically, markedly curved at apex, exceeded by the style. Legumes +/- oblong, flat, 6-8 cm long, ca 2 cm wide, borne on stipes ca 1 cm long, glaucous, glabrous, mostly 1-seeded (if 2-seeded, the fruit to 13 cm long), the winged area of equal thickness throughout; seeds discoid, to ca 1 cm diam, medial on fruit body. Croat 5320.