Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.7.
Tribe: Millettieae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 4 studied; 10 in genus.
Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 7–11 cm long; 2.5–3.5 cm wide; 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; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; irregular, or obliquely obovate; with both sutures unequally curved; not inflated; compressed; with beak; straight, or declined; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; tapered at apex, or short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; long tapered at base, or tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous, or leathery; seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin plain, or embellished; margin with thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; nonstipitate; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; apical and down; active; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; mottled, or streaked; brown; with brown overlay (darker); mottling color combination variable; with surface texture uniform; glabrous; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with recessed features; not veined; not tuberculate; slitted obliquely; not exfoliating, or exfoliating in part; without cracks, or with cracks; cracking oblique to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thick; surface not veined, or uniformly veined; 2-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; with solid layer over solid layer, or spongy layer over solid layer; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome, or mottled; tan, or white; with mottling dark more or less uniform; with brown overlay; scurfy and transversely wrinkled; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1–2(–6); length oblique to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching, or touching; in 1 series. Funiculus ca. 1 mm long; of 1 length only; flattened; straight, or triangular. Aril present; dry; when dry rim-aril and tongue-aril; entire; brown, or cream, or tan, or yellow.
Seed: 16–20 mm long; 10–14 mm wide; 3–9 mm thick; not overgrown; angular, or not angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; elliptic, or irregular; compressed, or flattened; 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; dull; not modified by a bloom, or modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or mottled; with infrequent mottles; brown (dark); with brown overlay (darker); glabrous; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; wrinkled; pitted with small separate pits; chartaceous to coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible; from hilum through lens to base of seed and terminating; not bifurcating; color of testa; raised. Hilum present; partially concealed; concealed by aril; without faboid split; larger than punctiform; 2.5–4 mm long; with curved outline; elliptic; subapical to radicle tip, or marginal according to radicle tip; recessed; within rim; rim color of testa, or darker than testa. Lens not discernible. Endosperm absent. Cotyledons smooth, or not smooth; wrinkled; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; with both folded, or not folded; sufficiently folded for inner face to touch itself; portions of inner folded face unequal; 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; brown; inner face flat, or wrinkled; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis oblique, or parallel; oblique to length of seed, or parallel to length of seed, or perpendicular to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; bulbose to triangular; lobe tip straight; oblique to cotyledons; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary, or moderately developed; glabrous.
Tribe Millettieae
Geesink (1981) treated this tribe, as others before him, under the tribal name Tephroseae, but we now know that its correct name is Millettieae. Recent tribal studies (Geesink, 1981, 1984; Polhill, 1994a, 1994b) have arranged the genera in alphabetical order without phylogenetic numbers. Geesink (1984) monographed tribe Millettieae, and presented descriptive notes about fruits and seeds and in situ fruit and seed drawings. However, we are not entirely following Geesink (1984) for generic parameters because he either questioned the status of many of his new genera or did not make the necessary species transfers. The few new genera which he clearly recognized are being accepted. Lavin et al. (1998) developed a preliminary infratribal classification of six informal groups using phytochrome nucleotides: Millettia group, Lonchocarpus group, Derris group, Tephrosia group, "primitive" group, and Phaseoleae group. Lavin (1987) transferred Sphinctospermum to Millettieae. Lavin and Doyle (1991) carried out cladistic analyses integrating morphological and chloroplast DNA data, and concluded that it is a member of Robineae where we have placed it (now 8.12).
Authors: J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, A.L. Weitzman, M.J. Dallwitz, K.R. Thiele
Content last updated April 2003
Released April 2024 on idtools.org
