Aphyllodium

Taxonomy

Aphyllodium (A.P. de Candolle) F. Gagnepain Notul. Syst. (Paris) 3: 254. 15 Sep 1916.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.11.08.
Tribe: Desmodieae.
Subtribe: Desmodiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 4 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A loment (or a loment segment), or a legume; unilocular; 0.2–1.7 cm long; 0.3–0.35 cm wide; 0.12–0.15 cm thick; length less than twice as long as width, or 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath, or persistent androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx, or deciduous calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical; elliptic, or moniliform; not inflated; flattened; with beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; tapered at apex, or rounded at apex, or truncate at apex (if lower of two articles); aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base, or truncate at base (if upper article of two); aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous; seed chambers externally visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin constricted; margin constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; nonstipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Loment indehiscent; segments (articles) inconspicuous; segments (articles) 3.5–4 mm long; segments (articles) widest across seed area; segments (articles) with all essentially similar in shape; segments (articles) elliptic. Epicarp dull; monochrome; reddish brown; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs appressed, or erect; with 1 type of pubescence; velutinous; with pubescence gray; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs (antrorse); stiff; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; surface not veined; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; glossy; opaque; monochrome; tan; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; septate, or nonseptate; with septa thicker than paper, firm; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 2, or 1; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only; flattened, or triangular; straight. Aril present (easily knocked off); dry; when dry rim-aril; entire; greenish tan, or green.

Seed: 1.2–1.5 mm long; 1–1.2 mm wide; 1–1.1 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; oblong; compressed; with surface smooth; with visible radicle and cotyledon lobes, or without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without external groove between radicle and cotyledon lobes; without hilar sinus; with umbo on seed faces; with umbo on both faces of seed; without medial ridge on each face. Cuticle not exfoliating; not inflated; not wrinkled. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; not adhering to endocarp; free from endocarp; glossy; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or mottled and streaked; greenish tan, or green, or purple; with purple overlay (more frequent than background color); glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; visible; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; punctiform (much smaller and much less conspicuous than the darker lens on greenish seeds); between cotyledon and radicle lobe; recessed; not within corona, halo, or rim, or within halo; halo of testa (but not mottled with purple). Lens discernible (greenish seeds), or not discernible (purplish seeds); with margins straight, or curved; square; 2 circular mounds separated by groove; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum; mounded; dissimilar color from testa; darker than testa; reddish brown; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to testa. Cotyledons smooth; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; not folded; margin entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; similar at apex; partially concealing radicle; entire over radicle; without lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; yellow, or green; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis deflexed; oblique to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; linear; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Tropical Asia to Australia.

Old World; China to Indochina to Indonesia and the Philippines to Australia.

Old World crop.

Generic Notes

Ohashi (1997a) corrected the name of this genus from Dicerma A.P. de Candolle to Aphyllodium, and defined its species more narrowly so that it has four species, the count used. He (Ohashi, 1973) also provided excellent drawings of fruits and seeds of the three species when treated as Dicerma.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Desmodieae

Ohashi et al. (1981) started their treatment of the Desmodieae with these thoughts: "A sensible classification of Desmodieae is prejudiced by the traditional over-weighting of fruit characters." (sic) "The fruit normally consists of indehiscent jointed articles, but fruits that open have arisen at least seven times..." They supplemented their text with a fruit-seed plate. They placed Brya and Cranocarpus (11.02), the only two New World endemic genera, in the new subtribe Bryinae, "characterized most notably by glochidiate hairs." Bailey et al. (1997), using the chloroplast rpl2 intron and ORF184, suggested that Brya, Cranocarpus, Phylacium (11.22), and Neocollettia (11.26) are not members of Desmodieae and that they probably belong in Aeschynomeneae (14).