Sena

Sena , town, central Mozambique, on the Zambezi River. Founded by the Portuguese in the 16th cent., it developed as a distribution center for local products, especially sugar. A fort was built there in the 18th cent.

Pterocarpus (family Leguminosae, subfamily Papilionatae) A genus of trees that have pinnate leaves and rather large leaflets. The flowers are showy racemes, in lax panicles. The fruit is a disc-like, flat, indehiscent pod, obliquely beaked, often membranaceous at the edges, containing 1 seed. The trees yield dark, fine-grained, superb cabinet timber (amboyna, angsana, sena from P. indicus, padauk from several continental Asian species). The cut bark yields a resin (kino) which is astringent and medicinal. There are about 20 species, with a pantropical distribution.