Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.7.
Tribe: Millettieae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 1 in genus.
Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 2–4.5 cm long; 0.8–1.3 cm wide; 0.1–0.2 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical; elliptic, or oblong, or obovate, or ovate; not inflated; compressed; with beak (very short, 1 mm or less long); straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; rounded at apex, or tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; long tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; chartaceous; seed chambers externally invisible; margin constricted (when 2-seeded), or not constricted (when 1-seeded); margin constricted along both margins to slightly constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; stipitate; with the stipe 2–5 mm long; apparently indehiscent. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; brown to tan; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; sparsely, antrorse strigose; with pubescence brown; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; wrinkled; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp absent. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown to tan; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1, or 2; in 1 series.
Geesink (1984) noted that mature fruits and seeds were unknown. Harms (1924) noted that fruits may be dehiscent and that young fruits are flat and without a wing. A fruiting specimen was available for study (Venezuela, Estado Sucre, Peninsula de Araya, 4 km east and west of Caimancito, 19 May 1981, R. Leisner & A. González 12092, NY). Three fruits were opened, but no seeds were found.
Tribe Millettieae
Geesink (1981) treated this tribe, as others before him, under the tribal name Tephroseae, but we now know that its correct name is Millettieae. Recent tribal studies (Geesink, 1981, 1984; Polhill, 1994a, 1994b) have arranged the genera in alphabetical order without phylogenetic numbers. Geesink (1984) monographed tribe Millettieae, and presented descriptive notes about fruits and seeds and in situ fruit and seed drawings. However, we are not entirely following Geesink (1984) for generic parameters because he either questioned the status of many of his new genera or did not make the necessary species transfers. The few new genera which he clearly recognized are being accepted. Lavin et al. (1998) developed a preliminary infratribal classification of six informal groups using phytochrome nucleotides: Millettia group, Lonchocarpus group, Derris group, Tephrosia group, "primitive" group, and Phaseoleae group. Lavin (1987) transferred Sphinctospermum to Millettieae. Lavin and Doyle (1991) carried out cladistic analyses integrating morphological and chloroplast DNA data, and concluded that it is a member of Robineae where we have placed it (now 8.12).
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
