Lotononis

Taxonomy

Lotononis (A.P. de Candolle) C.F. Ecklon & J.M. Zeyher Nom. cons. Enum. 176. Jan-Feb 1836.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.27.09.
Tribe: Crotalarieae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 16 studied; ca. 125 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 0.2–1.7 cm long; 0.15–0.9 cm wide; 0.1 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with persistent corolla; with various petals; with persistent calyx; with calyx longer than fruit, or shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight, or curved; not plicate, or plicate (rarely); not twisted; asymmetrical, or symmetrical; oblong, or falcate, or circular, or linear, or ovate; with both sutures nearly straight, or both sutures parallelly curved; not inflated; flattened; without beak; tapered at apex to short tapered at apex; oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous; seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus (lower suture flush), or with sulcus (lower suture deeply sulcate); margin plain, or embellished; margin with wing(s); wing(s) present, or absent; wing(s) 1; wing(s) 2 mm wide; wing(s) sutural; wing(s) on 1 suture; stipitate, or substipitate, or nonstipitate; with the stipe 0.1–10 mm long; with all layers dehiscing (to tardily dehiscent), or indehiscent; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; assumed apical and down; active; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; dark brown to black; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate, or pubescent but soon deciduous; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; pilose, or villous, or sericeous; with pubescence golden, or gray; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; without spines; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; distinctly to inconspicuously verrucose-rugose, or warty (along upper suture); 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; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; reddish brown; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; with wing(s) extending into epicarp, or without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1–30; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching, or touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 0.5–2.5 mm long; of 2 different lengths (are some of 1 length?); filiform; straight. Aril absent.

Seed: 1–3 mm long; 1–2.8 mm wide; 0.5–0.7 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; mitaform, or reniform, or cordate (obliquely); compressed; with visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without external groove between radicle and cotyledon lobes; 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, or dull; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or bichrome (especially yellows and purples or brown with black tubercles), or mottled and streaked; with frequent mottles; with frequent streaks; red (dish to yellowish), or yellow (to greenish), or purple (to tannish); with black overlay, or purple overlay; glabrous; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; tuberculate (minute and densely to sparsely); coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; visible; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; punctiform; between cotyledon and radicle lobe; recessed; within rim; rim color of testa, or darker than testa. Lens discernible; with margins curved; more or less circular; not in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum; 0.1–0.4 mm from hilum; mounded; same color as testa, or similar color as testa, or dissimilar color from testa; lighter than testa, or darker than testa; brown; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to 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; bulbose; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; 1/2 to nearly length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Southern Africa (Ca. 93% of species) to Mediterranean region and India.

Old World; Europe to Mediterranean to Russia to Africa to China to Macaronesia to Southwest Asia (to southern Africa).
 

Generic Notes

Buchenroedera C.F. Ecklon & J.M. Zeyher (29.09) has been merged with Lotononis, following Gunn et al. (1992). Polhill (1981q) noted that the 20 species of Buchenroedera might be "perhaps better included in Lotononis." The seeds of Lotononis are remarkably similar in shape, size, and color to seeds of Trifolium (21.06). Number of species and distribution follow Van Wyk (1991).

Tribal Notes

Tribe Crotalarieae

Polhill (1981q) broadly defined tribe Crotalarieae with two generic groups. The first group, without a two-lipped calyx, formed a tight cluster around Lebeckia (3.27.10) in southern Africa. The second group, with a two-lipped calyx, had more scattered distributions and uncertain affinities. Van Wyk (1991) followed Polhill (1981q), and transferred Argyrolobium (3.30.03) from Genisteae (3.30) to the second group. Crotalarieae and related tribes are rich in alkaloids which have been extensively studied in the last decade (Hussain et al. 1988; Van Wyk and Verdoorn, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c, 1990, 1991a, 1991b; Van Wyk et al., 1989, 1993; Verdoorn and Van Wyk, 1990, 1991). Polhill (1994a, 1994b) and Van Wyk and Schutte (1995a), using chemical and morphological data, restricted Crotalarieae to the genera without a two-lipped calyx, and transferred those with a two-lipped calyx to Genisteae, Anarthrophyllum (3.30.06), Argyrolobium (3.30.03), Dichilus (3.30.02), Melolobium (3.30.01), and Sellocharis (3.30.07), except Lebeckia. They also more or less inverted the generic order within the first group according to Van Wyk and Schutte's cladistic analysis for the genera of Crotalarieae, in the narrow sense.