Transfer of molecular markers is widely used in conservation genetic studies. We investigated the transferability of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers developed for Enterolobium cyclocarpum to E. contortisiliquum, a tropical tree widely distributed in dry forests. A set of 9 evaluated SSR markers were amplified in E. contortisiliquum and the degree of polymorphism was assessed in 8 trees sampled from each of 5 populations from central Brazil. All loci were polymorphic and the mean number of alleles for all loci was 6. In addition, all pairs of SSR markers were in linkage equilibrium. For most loci, the observed heterozygosity was higher than the expected heterozygosity under Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, with fixation indices not significantly different from zero. The combined probability of paternity exclusion was high and the probability of identity was very low. We conclude that these SSR markers developed for E. cyclocarpum are applicable for genetic studies of E. contortisiliquum.