The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees; without tendrils; unarmed. Phyllotaxy distichous, or spiral. Leaves compound; pinnate; paripinnate. Leaflets few per leaf; symmetrical or nearly so at their bases; alternate; with a strong, continuous marginal nerve; petiolulate; with petiolules not noticeably twisted. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous; neither leafy nor spinescent. Stipels absent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. Flowers small; hermaphrodite; not pentamerous throughout; departing from pentamery in the calyx and in the corolla; white or green; in panicles; distichous. Inflorescences axillary (or lateral on year-old wood). Bracts absent at anthesis. Bracteoles present; small, not enclosing the flower buds; absent at anthesis; not valvate; free. Hypanthium absent. Calyx polysepalous; covering the rest of the flower in bud; more or less regular; 4 partite; imbricate (but subvalvate). Corolla absent. Disk absent. Androecium of ten parts; members all free of one another; members markedly unequal; without staminodia. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers attached well above base of connective. Ovary sessile or subsessile; free. Ovules few.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit indehiscent; not becoming woody; drupaceous; with prominent, raised veins; not winged. Seeds non-endospermic; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-positive. Cotyledons epigeal.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves with conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses absent from the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities (gland-dots) common; epithelium-lined. 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; 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 present; all medium to thick-walled; hair feet all simple, without vertical walls. Basally bent hairs absent. Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight in optical section; conspicuously pitted; thin. Stomata adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis papillate interveinally; with papillae over-arching the stomata. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls markedly sinuous in high-focus optical section; staining normally with safranin; thick.
Wood anatomy. Wood not storied; with normal intercellular canals; without traumatic canals.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate; rugulose punctate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance.
Cytology, geography, etc. Basic chromosome number, x = 11. 2n = 22. 3 species. Tropical Africa. Not 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’.