The extractable, protein-bound and fibre-bound condensed tannin (CT) concentrations in the leaves of tropical legumes grown in both Colombia and Northern Australia were determined by the butanol-HCl method, whilst extractable C T was also determined by the vanillin-HC1 method. With the exception of Senna siamea all species contained CT. The very high C T concentration found in many plants growing in Colombia may have been partly due to soil fertility being much lower at the Colombian than the Northern Australian site. Acacia boliviana, Arachis pintoi, Centrosema latidens, Senna velutina and Gliricidia sepium contained < 5 5 g total C T kg-' DM, which suggests that they could comprise a reasonable proportion of ruminant diets. All other species grown in South America contained 100-240 g CT kg-DM, which suggests that they should only be fed in small amounts as supplements to dilute the C T concentration. Leucaena species and Calliandra calothyrsus grown in Northern Australia contained intermediate concentrations of total C T (60-90 g kg-' DM). Most species contained 70-95% of total CT as extractable CT, with the exception of Flemingia macrophylla, where 60% was extractable and 40% bound, and GIiricidia sepium, where almost all the C T was bound to protein. Values for Flerningia macrophylla differed between accessions. Extractable C T determined with vanillin-HCl was generally higher than extractable C T determined with butanol-HC1. Three accessions showed negligible ( < 1 g kg-' DM) extractable C T with butanol-HC1 but 10-12 g extractable CT kg-' D M with vanillin-HC1. Two accessions showed undetectable levels of extractable C T but substantial levels of protein-bound CT, illustrating the importance of using a bound C T method for identifying forages containing CT. Relative to freeze drying, oven drying of Leucaena species reduced the concentration of extractable C T and increased concentrations of bound CT. The significance of the results for the nutrition of ruminant livestock are discussed, including the possible roles of protein-bound and fibre-bound CT.