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PTEROLOBIUM Wight & Arn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE]
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1967) Author: J. P. M. Brenan
Names
PTEROLOBIUM Wight & Arn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE], Prodr. Fl. Ind. Or. 1: 283 (1834), nom. conserv.
Information
Shrubs, normally climbing, armed with prickles on stem and leaves. Leaves bipinnate; stipules small, inconspicuous, soon falling, subulate or triangular-subulate; specialized glands restricted to petiole and rhachis absent; leaflets opposite. Inflorescences of terminal and axillary often paniculately aggregated racemes; bracts small, soon falling. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, imbricate, unequal, the lower one cucullately embracing the others; hypanthium cupular, regular. Petals 5, equal or almost so. Stamens 10, all fertile; filaments alternately rather longer and shorter, all pubescent below; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary free, very shortly stipitate; ovule 1, attached near top of ovary; style gradually enlarged near apex; stigma transverse, not peltate. Pods resembling the samara of a sycamore (Acer), with a shortly stipitate basal seed-containing portion (with a single seed) whose upper suture is much prolonged beyond the seed-containing part of the pod and is broadly winged on its lower side, the wing usually becoming wider distally. Seed pendulous, ± compressed, without endosperm.
Range
About 10 species, mostly in Asia, extending eastwards to the Philippines; only one species in Africa.
Notes
The attribution of the name Pterolobium is not beyond doubt. When originally published by Robert Brown in Salt, Abyss., app. lxiv (1814), there was no description, but “ Kantuffa ” Bruce was cited in synonymy. It is clear from the generic name that Brown had seen and appreciated the taxonomic importance of the pods—without pods the plant is not clearly separable from Caesalpinia. Bruce however did not describe and in fact never saw the pods of “ Kantuffa ”. Brown must therefore have based Pterolobium on other fruiting specimens, probably collected by Salt, which however were neither cited nor described. It seems preferable therefore to accept Wight & Arnott’s description of Pterolobium as the first valid one.
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1967) Author: J. P. M. Brenan
Names
PTEROLOBIUM Wight & Arn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE], Prodr. Fl. Ind. Or. 1: 283 (1834), nom. conserv.
Information
Shrubs, normally climbing, armed with prickles on stem and leaves. Leaves bipinnate; stipules small, inconspicuous, soon falling, subulate or triangular-subulate; specialized glands restricted to petiole and rhachis absent; leaflets opposite. Inflorescences of terminal and axillary often paniculately aggregated racemes; bracts small, soon falling. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, imbricate, unequal, the lower one cucullately embracing the others; hypanthium cupular, regular. Petals 5, equal or almost so. Stamens 10, all fertile; filaments alternately rather longer and shorter, all pubescent below; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary free, very shortly stipitate; ovule 1, attached near top of ovary; style gradually enlarged near apex; stigma transverse, not peltate. Pods resembling the samara of a sycamore (Acer), with a shortly stipitate basal seed-containing portion (with a single seed) whose upper suture is much prolonged beyond the seed-containing part of the pod and is broadly winged on its lower side, the wing usually becoming wider distally. Seed pendulous, ± compressed, without endosperm.
Range
About 10 species, mostly in Asia, extending eastwards to the Philippines; only one species in Africa.
Notes
The attribution of the name Pterolobium is not beyond doubt. When originally published by Robert Brown in Salt, Abyss., app. lxiv (1814), there was no description, but “ Kantuffa ” Bruce was cited in synonymy. It is clear from the generic name that Brown had seen and appreciated the taxonomic importance of the pods—without pods the plant is not clearly separable from Caesalpinia. Bruce however did not describe and in fact never saw the pods of “ Kantuffa ”. Brown must therefore have based Pterolobium on other fruiting specimens, probably collected by Salt, which however were neither cited nor described. It seems preferable therefore to accept Wight & Arnott’s description of Pterolobium as the first valid one.
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1967) Author: J. P. M. Brenan
Names
PTEROLOBIUM Wight & Arn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE], Prodr. Fl. Ind. Or. 1: 283 (1834), nom. conserv.
Information
Shrubs, normally climbing, armed with prickles on stem and leaves. Leaves bipinnate; stipules small, inconspicuous, soon falling, subulate or triangular-subulate; specialized glands restricted to petiole and rhachis absent; leaflets opposite. Inflorescences of terminal and axillary often paniculately aggregated racemes; bracts small, soon falling. Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, imbricate, unequal, the lower one cucullately embracing the others; hypanthium cupular, regular. Petals 5, equal or almost so. Stamens 10, all fertile; filaments alternately rather longer and shorter, all pubescent below; anthers dorsifixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary free, very shortly stipitate; ovule 1, attached near top of ovary; style gradually enlarged near apex; stigma transverse, not peltate. Pods resembling the samara of a sycamore (Acer), with a shortly stipitate basal seed-containing portion (with a single seed) whose upper suture is much prolonged beyond the seed-containing part of the pod and is broadly winged on its lower side, the wing usually becoming wider distally. Seed pendulous, ± compressed, without endosperm.
Range
About 10 species, mostly in Asia, extending eastwards to the Philippines; only one species in Africa.
Notes
The attribution of the name Pterolobium is not beyond doubt. When originally published by Robert Brown in Salt, Abyss., app. lxiv (1814), there was no description, but “ Kantuffa ” Bruce was cited in synonymy. It is clear from the generic name that Brown had seen and appreciated the taxonomic importance of the pods—without pods the plant is not clearly separable from Caesalpinia. Bruce however did not describe and in fact never saw the pods of “ Kantuffa ”. Brown must therefore have based Pterolobium on other fruiting specimens, probably collected by Salt, which however were neither cited nor described. It seems preferable therefore to accept Wight & Arnott’s description of Pterolobium as the first valid one.
![PTEROLOBIUM Wight & Arn. [family LEGUMINOSAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE]](/fsi/img/misc/plants/static_thumbs/flora_tropEA_icon96.jpg)
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