The species, previously known as Acacia albida, is now called Faidherbia albidia because so many of its parts are unlike those of any other Acacia. It is a large leafy tree of 15 – 30m heights with a wide rounded crown when mature, sometimes deciduous. The bark is grey-brown and rough. The thorns are 2cm long. The leaves are compound, 3 – 10 pairs pinnae, leaflets are round tipped, grey-green, little dot glands just visible where the pinnae grows out of the leaf stalk. Flowers are arranged in dense creamy spikes about 10cm long, very fragrant. The fruit pods are conspicuous bright orange to red-brown, twisted and curled, thick, hard and shiny, to 35cm long by 5cm wide, containing 10 – 20 seeds, which ripen at the end of the dry season. Pods do not split open but rot on the ground to release the seeds. Seedlings have leaves like those of mature trees – an aid to identification. Many Acacia species contain some psychoactive alkaloids of which DMT and NMT are the most prominent and useful. The leaves of Acacia albida contains DMT & can be made into a brew together with some MAOI-containing plant to obtain an effect when taken orally. This could be seen as a kind of Ayahuasca. Maybe in relation to this effect, Egyptian mythology has associated the acacia tree with characteristics of the tree of life (cf. article on the Legend of Osiris and Isis). As a spiritual icon it is also one of the most powerful symbols in freemasonry, representing the eternal soul and purity of the soul.