Baudouinia

Taxonomy

Baudouinia H.E. Baillon Adansonia 6: 193. 11 Mar 1866.

Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 1.2.08.
Tribe: Cassieae.
Subtribe: Dialiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 3 studied; 6 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 0.8–20(–25) cm long; 0.5–2.5(–3.5) cm wide; 0.6–2 cm thick; length less than twice as long as width to 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with deciduous calyx; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight to curved; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; elliptic, or oblong, or circular; not inflated; compressed to terete; without beak; long tapered at apex to tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base to rounded at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; fleshy, or drupaceous (ligneous with age); seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; substipitate to nonstipitate; with the stipe 1–3 mm long; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull to glossy; monochrome; dull reddish to dark brown, or tan; with surface texture uniform; glabrous to pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect; with simple hairs; without spines; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; veined, or not veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; pitted; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp usually present (absent in B. rouxevillei); surface not veined; 1-layered (?); without balsamic vesicles; with fibers, or without fibers; without reniform canals; solid (fleshy when fresh); ligneous. Endocarp present; visible; dull to glossy; opaque; monochrome; brown; without adhering pieces of testa; subseptate to nonseptate (separating into 1-seeded subligneous segments or cocci in B. rouxevillei); not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1–2(–4), or 5–25; length transverse to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 0.1–1 mm long; of 1 length only; thick ("flared and lobed"); straight. Aril absent.

Seed: 4–8 mm long; (2–)4–6 mm wide; 1.5–4 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; symmetrical; nearly circular, or elliptic; compressed; with surface smooth; without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without hilar sinus; without umbo on seed faces; 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 to dull; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; brown, or yellow ("ocher"), or red (brick, Du Puy et al. (2002) described all seeds as "brick red"); glabrous; smooth; osseous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines present; reticulate. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible, or not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; without faboid split; larger than punctiform; 0.1–0.3 mm long; with curved outline; circular; apical at apex of radicle tip to subapical to radicle tip; flush to recessed; not within corona, halo, or rim. Lens not discernible. Endosperm present; thick; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; adnate to embryo. 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; not concealing radicle; with lobes; with lobes not touching; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis straight; parallel to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; centered between cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Generic Notes

Capuron (1968, pp. 199–222) monographed the genus, recognizing five species. His fifth species, B. orientalis R. Viguier, is so poorly known that he could not separate it from B. fluggeiformis in his key. Perhaps this is why Irwin and Barneby (1981) recognized only four species. The fruit variability in this genus is reminiscent of that in the much larger legume genus Prosopis C. Linnaeus, Mimoseae, Mimosoideae (Gunn, 1983). Capuron described fresh fruits as either drupaceous with a fleshy or fibrous epicarp and ligneous endocarp, or with endocarp separating into one-seeded segments. The latter was described as a pseudolomentacous fruit by Irwin and Barneby. Du Puy et al. (2002) accepted six species in the genus, including a new one, B. capuronii Du Puy & Rabev., and their species count is used. Du Puy et al. (2002) also described the fruit of this genus as being being of two distinct types, "either drupaceous, with a thin pericarp and a hard woody interior containing 1–2(-4) seeds in individual chambers, or leguminous to fleshy and divided into 5–25 single-seeded segments which can be separated from each other, indehiscent.".