It prefers well-drained, subtropical environments, ideally thriving on hills or slopes with a 30% incline that experience more than 4000 mm of precipitation annually.

Despite this, early seedlings can only survive a few weeks in flooded conditions, limiting the range of environments Parkia pendula can thrive in.

[5][6] Parkia pendula can be found in a variety of countries, mainly Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[3] It grows in many lowland forests, with a large reserve found in a national park in Espirito Santo, Brazil[7] Insects, specifically certain species of beetles, deposit eggs inside the bud of Parkia pendula, acting as a parasite on the seeds[7] .

[9] Each fertile flower has ten androgynous stamen evenly joined at their base, with a single style and several minuscule stigma.

[10] Parkia pendula typically fruits in February and July in Costa Rica, from January to November in Venezuela, and in May in Bolivia.

[2][4] The seed pod gum of Parkia pendula is extremely sticky due to a high concentration of sugars such as galactose and arabinose.

[11] In fact, there are recorded instances of small vertebrates getting caught in the gum and being fatally trapped due to their exposure to the elements and potential predators.

Experiments conducted in Brazil showed that by cutting opposite the radicle emergence, scarring the seeds with an abrasive stone, or immersing in sulfuric acid for less than 30 minutes, germination rates would increase.

The capitula appear bright red due to the color of the anthers and filaments, then become yellow-red at dusk when nectar and pollen are produced.

When the styles elongate, the plant takes on a purple-red hue, finishing the dramatic color shift all within one night.

Parkia pendula polyads are about 100 mm in diameter and composed of 32 pollen grains, with an outer exine that is grooved.

[8] The corolla is a key part of pollination, as its round shape and exposed arrangement allows it to be found by bats via echolocation.

[7] The genus Parkia was established by Robert Brown in 1826, notably different from other members of their subfamily Mimosideae due to their fertile flowers having a calyx with five lobes and ten stamen.

[4] Due to its high growth rate and capability to attract wild animals while fixing copious amounts of nitrogen, Parkia pendula is perfectly suited to afforestation.

[4] Research has been conducted examining the use of lectin as a histochemistry marker to distinguish meningothelial tumors and as treatment for cutaneous wounds in normal and immunocompromised mice.