Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.18.06.
Tribe: Hedysareae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 66 studied; ca. 130 in genus.
Fruit: A legume (breaking between seed chambers into "articles"), or a nutlet; unilocular; 0.4–1.5 cm long; 0.15–1 cm wide; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx, or deciduous calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit, or longer than fruit, or equal in length to fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments, or with orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight, or curved, or 1-coiled (nearly); not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; circular, or reniform, or samaroid; with 1 straight and 1 curved suture, or both sutures parallelly curved, or both sutures unequally curved; widest near middle or D-shaped; not inflated; compressed, or terete; without beak, or with beak; hooked (at apex), or straight, or declined; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit (3–10 mm long); short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or almost reaching longitudinal axis of fruit; tapered at base, or short tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous; seed chambers externally visible; margin constricted, or not constricted; margin constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin embellished, or plain; margin with spines, or wing(s) (entire or cut), or prickles, or fringe; wing(s) absent, or present; wing(s) 1; wing(s) 0.1–3 mm wide; wing(s) samaroid, or sutural, or continuous wing around fruit; wing(s) on both sutures; nonstipitate, or substipitate; indehiscent. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; brown, or tan; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect, or appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; minutely puberulent, or tomentose; with pubescence golden, or gray; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; with spines, or without spines; with spines persistent, or broken off and their bases evident; with spines same color as the rest of the fruit; not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; veined, or not veined; reticulately veined (and with or without spines and reticulum can be removed); not tuberculate, or tuberculate; with solid tubercles on each valve; tuberculate; pitted (broad pits); not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp absent. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; tan; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to epicarp; without wings, or with wing(s) extending into epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1; length parallel with fruit length. Funiculus filiform; straight. Aril absent.
Seed: 2–5 mm long; 2.6–3 mm wide; 2.1–2.2 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; reniform, or oblong; compressed; with surface smooth; with visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; with external groove between radicle and cotyledon lobes; with external groove between radicle and cotyledon lobes same color as testa; 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, or dull; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or mottled; brown, or yellow, or cream, or black; with black overlay; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible, or visible; from hilum to lens; not bifurcating; darker than testa, or color of testa; reddish brown; recessed. Hilum present; partially concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; 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; flush; within halo; halo darker than testa. Lens discernible; with margins curved; circular, or elliptic; not in groove of raphe, or in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum, or confluent with hilum; 1 mm from hilum; mounded; dissimilar color from testa, or similar color as testa; darker than testa; reddish brown, or black; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to testa. 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; tan; 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; linear; lobe tip straight; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons to 1/2 to nearly length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary, or moderately developed; glabrous.
Cooper and Carleton (1968) edited a symposium proceeding dealing with the agronomic aspects of sainfoin (O. sativa C. Linnaeus). Yildiz et al. (1999) studied the fruit morphology of the Onorychis sections. They concluded: 1) there is no fruit synapomorphy supporting the monophyly of Onobrychis; 2) in six trees Onobrychis is polyphyletic with section Dendrobrychis DC. excluded and in two is monophyletic; and, 3) the subgenera Onobrychis and Sisyrosema Bunge were not supported.
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
