The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees; without tendrils; unarmed. Phyllotaxy spiral. Leaves simple (unifoliolate, entire). Venation neither palmate nor parallel nor fan-like. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous; neither leafy nor spinescent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers hermaphrodite; pentamerous, or not pentamerous throughout; departing from pentamery in the androecium; not distichous. Inflorescences axillary (the peduncles 1–3 flowered); of cymose units. Bracteoles absent at anthesis. Hypanthium absent. Calyx polysepalous; covering the rest of the flower in bud; more or less regular; 5 partite; imbricate. Corolla present; actinomorphic, or slightly zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals. Petals 5; imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Disk absent. Androecium of fewer than ten parts, or of ten parts; members all free of one another; without staminodia. Fertile stamens 6–10. Anthers attached at base of connective. Dehiscence via pores or short slits. Ovary stipitate; free. Ovules few, or numerous (2–20).
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit indehiscent (a pseudolomentum); becoming distinctly woody (with hard endocarp); drupaceous; not winged; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves. Seeds with a straight or slightly oblique radicle.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves with conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses absent from the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities absent. Adaxial hypodermis absent. Leaf girders common (the veins transcurrent). Laminae dorsiventral. Mesophyll without unaligned fibres or sclereids. Minor veins mainly with abundant accompanying fibres.
Leaf lamina epidermes. Epidermal crystals not seen either adaxially or abaxially. Simple unbranched hairs not seen; scabrid. No compound or branched eglandular hairs seen. Capitate glands not seen. Hooked hairs not seen. Cassieae-type leaf pseudo-glands not seen. Expanded and embedded hair-feet absent. Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight in optical section; conspicuously pitted; thick. Stomata adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata not predominantly paracytic (actinocytic and anomcytic). Abaxial epidermis not papillate. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight, or gently undulating; conspicuously pitted in optical section; staining normally with safranin; medium-thick.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate; rugulose punctate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance.
Cytology, geography, etc. 4 species. Madagascar. Madagascar. Not widely cultivated.
Tribe. Cassieae.
The interactive key provides access to the character list, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, and summaries of attributes within groups of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1993 onwards. The genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae: descriptions, identification, and information retrieval. In English and French; French translation by E. Chenin. Version: 19th October 2005. http://delta-intkey.com’.