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 compound; bipinnate; with opposite or sub-opposite pinnae; with opposite or sub-opposite leaflets; with adaxially grooved rachides. Venation neither palmate nor parallel nor fan-like. Leaflets many per leaf (small); petiolulate, or sessile to sub-sessile. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous; neither leafy nor spinescent. Stipels absent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers large and showy; hermaphrodite; pentamerous; coloured; in simple racemes to in simple corymbs; not distichous. Inflorescences terminal. Bracts absent at anthesis (caducous, small). Bracteoles absent; absent at anthesis. Hypanthium present, or absent. Length of floral tube relative to total hypanthium plus calyx length, about 0.25. Calyx polysepalous; covering the rest of the flower in bud; more or less regular; 5 partite; not imbricate. Corolla present; slightly zygomorphic, or very zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals, or ?Aprevalia. Petals white, or yellow, or red; 5 (orbicular), or 1 (small, in Aprevalia); imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Clawed petals present. Androecium of ten parts; members all free of one another; members alternately slightly longer and shorter; without staminodia. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers attached well above base of connective (dorsifixed). Dehiscence introrse; longitudinal. Ovary sessile or subsessile; free. Ovules numerous.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod; becoming distinctly woody; curved; with prominent, raised veins; not winged; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves. Seeds endospermic; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-negative; with galactomannan. Cotyledons flat; of Type 3; with a vascular system in one plane; epigeal.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves without conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses common in the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities absent. 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; scabrid, or smooth. 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. Basally bent hairs present. Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight in optical section; conspicuously pitted, or not conspicuously pitted; thin. 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; scarcely staining with safranin; thin.
Wood anatomy. Wood with septate fibres; storied, or not storied. Intervascular pits very small.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum reticulate; finely to moderately regularly reticulate. Length of colpi less than one half pole to pole distance (without a margocolpus). Foot layer of pollen wall with obvious projections.
Cytology, geography, etc. Basic chromosome number, x = 14. 2n = 28. 10 species. Tropical Africa, Madagascar, Asia. 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’.