The young bark of Dalbergia melanoxylon is pale grey and smooth, adding brown, even purplish brown as it becomes darker and rougher with age when it starts to peel and flake. Some stem parts have sparsely scattered spines formed from modified side branchlets.

The leaflets in the photo increase in size towards the leaf tip where the terminal one is arguably the biggest. The leaves are soft, often droopy. Older leaves may be darker green (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Grant and Thomas, 2001; iSpot).