The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
Balsamocarpon Clos in Gay, Denisophytum Vig.
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs, or herbs, or climbers or scramblers; without tendrils; armed (with prickly branchlets and rachides), or unarmed. Leaves and inflorescences crowded on ‘short shoots’, or without specialized ‘short shoots’. Phyllotaxy spiral. Leaves compound; pinnate (rare, in Chile and Cuba; = Balsamocarpon), or bipinnate; with opposite or sub-opposite pinnae; with opposite or sub-opposite leaflets, or with alternate leaflets; paripinnate; with rachides adaxially ridged. Leaflets many per leaf, or few per leaf; with markedly twisted petiolules, or with petiolules not noticeably twisted. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous, or present, persistent and conspicuous; leafy, or spinescent, or neither leafy nor spinescent. Stipels present, or absent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers small, or large, or showy; hermaphrodite; pentamerous; coloured; in panicles (of racemes); not distichous. Inflorescences axillary, or terminal; of racemose units. Bracts absent at anthesis, or persistent beyond anthesis. Bracteoles absent; absent at anthesis. Hypanthium present. Length of floral tube relative to total hypanthium plus calyx length, about 0.25. Calyx polysepalous; covering the rest of the flower in bud, or not covering the rest of the flower in bud; markedly zygomorphic; 5 partite (lowest tooth outside); imbricate. Corolla present; slightly zygomorphic, or very zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals. Petals yellow, or red; 5; imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Clawed petals present. Disk absent. Androecium of ten parts; members all free of one another; without staminodia. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers attached well above base of connective. Dehiscence introrse; longitudinal. Ovary sessile or subsessile; free. Stigma not peltate (the style filiform). Ovules few, or numerous, or solitary.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod, or indehiscent (sometimes spiny); not becoming woody; straight, or curved; not internally septate; not winged; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves. Seeds endospermic, or non-endospermic; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-negative; with galactomannan. Cotyledons flat; of Type 2, or Type 3, or Type 4; with a vascular system in one plane; epigeal, or hypogeal.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves without conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses common in the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities (gland-dots) common, or absent; without a lining of epithelium. Adaxial hypodermis absent. Leaf girders absent. Laminae dorsiventral. Mesophyll without unaligned fibres or sclereids. Minor veins lacking accompanying fibrous tissue.
Leaf lamina epidermes. Epidermal crystals not seen either adaxially or abaxially. Simple unbranched hairs common, or not seen; scabrid, or smooth. No compound or branched eglandular hairs seen. Capitate glands present, or 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, or markedly sinuous in high-focus optical section; conspicuously pitted, or not conspicuously pitted. Stomata adaxially common and widespread, or adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic, or not predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis not papillate. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight, or gently undulating; conspicuously pitted in optical section, or not conspicuously pitted in optical section; scarcely staining with safranin; medium-thin.
Wood anatomy. Wood without septate fibres; storied, or not storied; without normal intercellular canals; without traumatic canals. Intervascular pits very small, or medium to large.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate (rare), or reticulate; smooth punctate, or puncticulate; strongly irregularly coarse-reticulate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance (with a margocolpus). Foot layer of pollen wall with obvious projections.
Cytology, geography, etc. Basic chromosome number, x = 12. 2n = 22 (?), or 24. About 100 species. Tropical and subtropical. Widely cultivated.
Tribe. Caesalpinieae.
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’.