The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae
| The Genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs (rare); without tendrils; unarmed. Without specialized ‘short shoots’. Phyllotaxy spiral. Leaves compound; bipinnate. Leaflets often hairy; 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; pentamerous; in simple racemes (sometimes spicate), or in panicles; not distichous. Inflorescences of racemose units. Bracts absent at anthesis (caducous, small). Bracteoles absent; absent at anthesis. Hypanthium present. Length of floral tube relative to total hypanthium plus calyx length, about 0.5–0.75. Calyx gamosepalous; not covering the rest of the flower in bud; more or less regular; 5 partite; imbricate. Corolla present; slightly zygomorphic; polypetalous; without any greatly reduced petals. Petals 5 (spathulate); imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Androecium of ten parts; members all free of one another; with staminodia (5). Fertile stamens 5 (opposite the petals). Anthers attached at base of connective (but sagittate). Dehiscence longitudinal. Ovary sessile or subsessile, or stipitate; free. Stigma not peltate (the style short). Ovules numerous.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod, or indehiscent; becoming distinctly woody, or not becoming woody; straight, or curved; not winged. Seeds endospermic; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-negative.
Transverse section of lamina. Leaves without conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses absent from the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities absent. Adaxial hypodermis present, or absent. Leaf girders absent. Laminae dorsiventral. Mesophyll without unaligned fibres or sclereids. Minor veins mainly with abundant accompanying fibres.
Leaf lamina epidermes. Epidermal crystals present, or not seen either adaxially or abaxially; prisms. 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 absent. Basally bent hairs present. Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight in optical section; conspicuously pitted; of medium thickness. Stomata adaxially very rare. Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis papillate interveinally, or not papillate. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight, or gently undulating; not conspicuously pitted in optical section; staining normally with safranin; of medium thickness.
Wood anatomy. Intervascular pits very small.
Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate; smooth punctate, or puncticulate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance (without a margocolpus).
Cytology, geography, etc. Basic chromosome number, x = 14. 2n = 28. 25 species. Tropical America. Not 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’.