Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.11.06.
Tribe: Desmodieae.
Subtribe: Desmodiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 11 studied; 13 in genus.
Fruit: A loment (or a loment segment), or a legume; unilocular; 0.9–4.5 cm long; 0.5–0.85 cm wide; 0.12–0.3 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide, or length less than twice as long as width; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with deciduous calyx; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; slightly curved, or straight, or curved; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; moniliform, or linear, or falcate (sub); with both sutures parallelly curved, or 1 straight and 1 curved suture; narrowing in several places, resembling Desmodium (3.11.09) fruit; not inflated; compressed, or flattened; with beak, or without beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base, or rounded at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; ligneous; 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; substipitate, or nonstipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Loment an intact article; indehiscent; segments (articles) inconspicuous; segments (articles) 7–8 mm long; segments (articles) widest across seed area; segments (articles) with all essentially similar in shape; segments (articles) D-shaped, or quadrangular. Epicarp dull; monochrome; reddish brown; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate, or glabrous, or glabrate; with hairs appressed, or erect; with 1 type of pubescence; tomentose; with pubescence golden; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; not veined, or veined; reticulately veined (D. dispermum (B. Hayata) A.K. Schindler and D. rostratum (A.K. Schindler) A.K. Schindler); not tuberculate; wrinkled; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thick; surface not veined; 1-layered, or 2-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; with honeycomb layer over solid layer; ligneous. Endocarp present; visible; glossy; opaque; monochrome; tan (to reddish); smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; septate; with septa thicker than paper, firm; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1–8; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 0.1–0.5 mm long; of 1 length only; thick; straight. Aril absent.
Seed: 3–3.6 mm long; 2–2.8 mm wide; 1–1.6 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; oblong, or ovate, or elliptic, or quadrangular; compressed; with surface smooth; without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without hilar sinus; without umbo on seed faces, or 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; reddish brown; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; visible, or fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; punctiform; marginal according to radicle tip; recessed; within rim; rim color of testa. Lens discernible; 0.5 mm long; with margins straight, or curved; triangular, or linear; 2 circular mounds separated by groove; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum; mounded; dissimilar color from testa; darker than testa; dark 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, or 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; entire over radicle; without lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; yellow; 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, or bulbose; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length, or deflexed and parallel to cotyledon width; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed, or rudimentary; glabrous.
Ohashi (1973) monographed the genus, and provided illustrations of fruits and seeds. He (Ohashi, 1997b, 1997c) also reviewed the species of Malesia, Australia, and Fiji and D. cumingianum G. Bentham.
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).
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
