The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
= Bauhinia: Phanera group.
Habit and leaf form. Climbers or scramblers; with tendrils; unarmed. Leaves compound; bifoliate; paripinnate. Venation palmate, parallel or fan-like. Leaflets few per leaf (two); opposite or sub-opposite; sessile to sub-sessile.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers hermaphrodite; not pentamerous throughout; departing from pentamery in the calyx and in the androecium; coloured. Bracts persistent beyond anthesis. Bracteoles present; relatively large and enclosing the flower buds; persistent beyond anthesis. Calyx gamosepalous; more or less regular, or markedly zygomorphic; 2–3 partite. Corolla present; slightly zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals. Petals white, or red; 5; imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Clawed petals present. Androecium of ten parts; members all free of one another; members markedly unequal; with staminodia. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers attached well above base of connective. Dehiscence longitudinal. Ovary stipitate; free. Ovules numerous.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod; not becoming woody; not winged; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves. Seeds endospermic; arillate (the hilum crescentic); with a straight or slightly oblique radicle.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves without conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses common in the mesophyll, or 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. No compound or branched eglandular hairs seen. Capitate glands not seen. Expanded and embedded hair-feet absent. Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight in optical section; conspicuously pitted; of medium thickness. Stomata adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis not papillate. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight, or gently undulating; conspicuously pitted in optical section; staining normally with safranin; thin.
Cytology, geography, etc. 1 species. Borneo. Not widely cultivated.
Tribe. Cercideae.
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’.