The pods are densely covered in short, red glandular hairs.

It is a striking ornamental plant native to South America, mainly Argentina and Uruguay.

Although it is a tropical plant adapted to dry climates, it also thrives in the climate of Avsa and neighboring islands in the south of Sea of Marmara in northwestern Turkey, where it is commonly known as Paşabıyığı (Pasabiyigi), Cennetkuşu ağacı (Cennetkusu agaci), which in Turkish means "bird of paradise tree," and Bodurakasya, which means "dwarf acacia".

This species is also fairly common in the Karoo of South Africa, and found in the Catalonian and Valencian regions of Spain.

[2] Medicine men of peoples indigenous to the Amazon Rainforest used this plant and the similar Caesalpinia pulcherrima, which they called ayoowiri, for curing fever, sores, and cough.