Albizia is a genus of about 150 species of mostly fast-growing subtropical and tropical trees and shrubs in the Subfamily Mimosoideae of the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus is pantropical, occurring in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, Central, South, and southern North America and Australia, but mostly in the Old World tropics.

Albizia amara commonly known as Bittervalsdoring in Afrikaans and Bitter Albizia in English is a small to moderate-sized, much-branched deciduous tree with smooth, dark green, scaly bark. It resembles the acacias but lacks thorns. Its root system is shallow and spreading. The leaves are pinnately compound, with 15-24 pairs of small, linear leaflets, on 6-15 pairs of pinnae. The yellow, fragrant and globose flowers are in clusters. They develop when the tree is almost leafless. The flowers are pedicelled, yellow, fragrant, in 12-20 globose heads. Fruits are oblong pods, about 10-28 x 2-5 cm, light brown, puberulous, thin, and 6-8 seeded; seeds flattened, 8-13 x 7-8 mm. The genus was named after Filippo del Albizzi, a Florentine nobleman who in 1749 introduced A. julibrissin into cultivation. The specific name amara is probably the Latin word meaning bitter, although the allusion is not clear.