Etaballia

Taxonomy

Etaballia G. Bentham J. Bot. (Hooker) 2: 99. Mar 1840.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.2.09.
Tribe: Sophoreae.
Group: Myroxylon.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 1 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 3.5–4 cm long; 2–3 cm wide; 0.3–0.5 cm thick; 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; straight, or curved; not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; C-shaped, or irregular, or reniform; with both sutures unequally curved, or both sutures parallelly curved; not inflated; flattened; without beak; short tapered at apex, or emarginate at apex; oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit, or right-angled with longitudinal axis of fruit; rounded at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or right angled with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous; seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin plain, or embellished; margin with wing(s); wing(s) present, or absent (while not winged, whole fruit is winglike); wing(s) continuous wing around fruit; nonstipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; brown; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate, or glabrate; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; puberulent; 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; not tuberculate; rugose (longitudinal); 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; with fibers; without reniform canals; fibrous throughout; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown (reddish); hairy; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; with wing(s) extending into epicarp, or without wings (while not winged, whole fruit is winglike); entire. Seed(s) 1 (usually); length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only; flattened; straight. Aril absent.

Seed: 12 mm long; 11 mm wide; 0.4 mm thick; overgrown, 1 seed filling entire fruit cavity; angular; asymmetrical; irregular; flattened; with surface grooved; oblique; 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; colored; monochrome; brown (reddish); glabrous; not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; reticulate; grooved; chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; without faboid split (probably absent); larger than punctiform; 0.5 mm long; with curved outline; elliptic; between cotyledon and radicle lobe; flush; within halo; halo darker than testa. Lens not discernible. Endosperm absent. Cotyledons not smooth (obliquely grooved); 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; completely concealing radicle; entire over radicle; without lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; brown (reddish); inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis straight; perpendicular to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; linear; straight with embryonic axis; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil.

New World; South America (Guyana, Venezuela, Brazil); Brazil and Ecuador.

Generic Notes

Bentham (1862) reported on the confusion caused by seeing Etaballia and Inocarpus (2.10) for the first time.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Sophoreae

Polhill (1981b) stated that the Sophoreae s.l. is a tribe of convenience between the Caesalpinioideae and the bulk of the Papilionoideae, sharply defined from neither. He transferred four genera from Sophoreae into the Swartzieae (1), Amburana (3.1.15), Ateleia (3.1.13), Cyathostegia (3.1.14), and Holocalyx (3.1.12), following Herendeen's (1995) cladistic analyses. Herendeen performed cladistic analyses for all Swartzieae genera, sensu Cowan (1981), 19 Sophoreae genera, and three Caesalpinioideae genera. He concluded that Swartzieae is polyphyletic and that it should be disbanded and its genera transferred to Sophoreae. Preliminary rbcL data (Doyle et al. 1997) supported his conclusions.