The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees (often low), or shrubs (rare); without tendrils; unarmed. Phyllotaxy distichous, or spiral (rare). Leaves compound; pinnate; paripinnate. Leaflets few per leaf (often large); markedly asymmetrical at the base, or symmetrical or nearly so at their bases; opposite or sub-opposite; without a continuous marginal nerve; with petiolules not noticeably twisted. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous, or present, persistent and conspicuous; leafy, or neither leafy nor spinescent. Stipels absent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers showy; hermaphrodite; pentamerous (rare), or not pentamerous throughout; departing from pentamery in the androecium, or in the calyx and in the androecium; coloured; in simple racemes (short), or in panicles (capitate and involucrate); not distichous. Inflorescences terminal. Bracts absent at anthesis (caducous, sometimes large and coloured). Bracteoles present (coloured); small, not enclosing the flower buds; persistent beyond anthesis; not valvate; connate. Hypanthium present. Calyx more or less regular; 4–5 partite (petaloid); imbricate. Corolla present; slightly zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals. Petals white (rare), or red; 5; imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Clawed petals present. Androecium of ten parts, or of more than ten parts; with united members, or members all free of one another; without staminodia. Fertile stamens 10–15. Anthers attached well above base of connective. Ovary stipitate; excentric with adnate stipe (the style filiform). Ovules numerous.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod; becoming distinctly woody, or not becoming woody; straight, or curved; not winged; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves. Seeds non-endospermic; not arillate; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-positive. Cotyledons of Type 4; with a vascular system ramified throughout.
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 common, or not seen. 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 markedly sinuous in high-focus optical section; conspicuously pitted, or not conspicuously pitted; medium-thick to of medium thickness. Stomata adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis not papillate. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls markedly sinuous in high-focus optical section; conspicuously pitted in optical section, or not conspicuously pitted in optical section; staining normally with safranin; medium-thin to thin.
Wood anatomy. Wood not storied.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate, or reticulate, or striate; smooth punctate, or puncticulate; finely to moderately regularly reticulate; pole to pole striate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance. Foot layer of pollen wall smooth.
Cytology, geography, etc. Basic chromosome number, x = 12. 2n = 24. 30 species. South and Central America and West Indies. Tropical America, West Indies. Widely cultivated.
Tribe. Detarieae.
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’.