Icuria

Taxonomy

Incuria J.J. Wieringa Agric. Univ. Wageningen Pap. 99–4: 241. 30 Sep 1999.

Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 1.4.58B.
Tribe: Detarieae.
Group: Berlinia.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 0 studied; 1 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 6–11 cm long; 3.6–5.1 cm wide; 0.2–0.3 cm thick; 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; obovate; with both sutures nearly straight; not inflated; compressed; with beak (3–6 mm long); straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; short tapered at apex; oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base to rounded at base; right angled with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture (assumed); coriaceous; seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin embellished; margin with wing(s); wing(s) present; wing(s) 2; wing(s) 2–5 mm wide; wing(s) sutural; wing(s) on 1 suture (upper suture); stipitate; with the stipe 6–12 mm long; with all layers dehiscing (assumed); splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; active. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; stiif puberulent, or velutinous; with pubescence uniformly distributed (assumed); with simple hairs; stiff, or pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; longitudinally veined relative to fruit length and reticulately veined (with 1, or rarely 2, prominent longitudinal veins running the length of the fruit; the first longitudinal vein 0.2–0.4% of the fruit width down from the upper suture and the rare second one 0.6–0.8% down from the upper suture); not tuberculate; not exfoliating; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Seed(s) 1–3; length parallel with fruit length (assumed); neither overlapping nor touching (assumed); in 1 series (assumed). Aril absent (assumed).

Seed: 25–28 mm long; 20–23 mm wide; the description suggests that this might be an overgrown according to Corners's (1951) definition; not angular; symmetrical; elliptic (with a protruding base); compressed (assumed). Cuticle not inflated. Testa present; colored; bichrome, or monochrome; silver and brown (purplish, at the margins); glabrous; membraneous. Wing(s) absent. Endosperm absent.

Distribution

Mozambican coast between Angoche (Antonio Enes) and Moebase (Wieringa 1999).

Old World; Africa (Mozambican coast between Angoche (Antonio Enes) and Moebase).
 

Generic Notes

Gervais and Bruneau (2002) assessed Wieringa's claasification using molecular techniques, and their results agreed, in general, with those of Wieringa (1999). No specimen available for study, so data were extracted from the original description and figure.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Detarieae

Bruneau et al. (2000) carried out extensive phylogenetic analyses of tribes Amherstieae and Detarieae. They concluded that they form a single monophyletic group. Therefore, they supported Polhill's (1995a, 1995b) decision to unite the two tribes.