Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.11.18A.
Tribe: Desmodieae.
Subtribe: Desmodiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 2 in genus.
Fruit: A loment (or a loment segment); 0.8–1.5 cm long; 0.35–0.5 cm wide; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit, or longer than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; moniliform; with both sutures parallelly curved (nearly so), or 1 straight and 1 curved suture; narrowing in several places, resembling Desmodium (3.11.09) fruit; not inflated; flattened; with beak; nearly straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; short tapered at apex, or rounded at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; rounded at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; membranous; seed chambers externally visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin constricted; margin constricted only on 1 margin; margin without sulcus; margin plain; nonstipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Loment an intact article; indehiscent; segments (articles) inconspicuous; segments (articles) widest across seed area; segments (articles) with all essentially similar in shape; segments (articles) D-shaped. Epicarp dull; monochrome; brown (assumed); with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs (mixture of hooked and plain tipped hairs); pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating; without cracks. Mesocarp present, or absent (assumed to be like Desmodium 11.09)). Endocarp present; opaque; without adhering pieces of testa; septate; with septa thicker than paper, firm; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 3–6; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only. Aril absent.
Seed: 1.2–2 mm long; 1.2–2 mm wide; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; reniform, or ovate; compressed; with surface smooth; with 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; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; dark brown, or gray (dark); glabrous; smooth; coriaceous (assumed). Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim present. Wing(s) absent.
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
