Ormosia

Taxonomy

Ormosia G. Jackson Nom. cons. Trans. Linn. Soc. London 10: 360. 7 Sep 1811.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.2.15.
Tribe: Sophoreae.
Group: Ormosia.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: ca. 26 studied; ca. 100 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 1.5–13 cm long; 1–7 cm wide; 0.5–3 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx, or deciduous calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; elliptic, or ovate, or irregular, or obliquely obovate; with 1 straight and 1 curved suture, or both sutures unequally curved; widest near middle or D-shaped; inflated, or not inflated; compressed, or terete; with beak (short), or without beak; straight, or declined; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; rounded at apex, or short tapered at apex; oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; rounded at base, or tapered at base, or short tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous, or leathery, or ligneous; seed chambers externally visible; margin constricted, or not constricted; margin constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin plain, or embellished; margin with thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; stipitate, or substipitate; with the stipe 0.1–10 mm long; with all layers dehiscing, or indehiscent; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures, or 1 suture; apical and down; active; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; black, or brown, or red; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or glabrate, or pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect, or appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; puberulent, or strigose, or villous; with pubescence brown, or golden; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; not veined; not tuberculate; papillose, or rugose, or wrinkled; not exfoliating; without cracks, or with cracks; cracking oblique to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thick; surface not veined; 3-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; with spongy layer over vitriol over solid layer (with spongy layer over vitrol over solid layer); ligneous, or coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; mottled; tan; with mottling more or less uniform (dark); with brown overlay; smooth and scurfy; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1–6; length parallel with fruit length, or oblique to fruit length, or transverse to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 1.5–2.5 mm long; of 1 length only; thick; curved. Aril present; dry; when dry rim-aril; entire; cream, or tan.

Seed: 6–40 mm long; 6–40 mm wide; 5–20 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular, or angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; circular, or elliptic, or irregular, or oblong, or ovate; terete, or compressed; with surface smooth; 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, or glossy; not modified by a bloom; colored; bichrome, or monochrome, or mottled; with infrequent mottles; red, or black, or orange, or red and black, or orange and black; with black overlay; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous to chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent, or present; irregular. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible, or not visible; from hilum to near base of seed and terminating; not bifurcating; color of testa; flush, or raised. Hilum present; visible, or partially concealed; concealed by aril, or funiculus; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform; 1–45 mm long; with curved outline, or straight outline; elliptic; linear; subapical to radicle tip, or apical according to radicle tip but marginal according to seed length; flush, or recessed; within rim; rim color of testa. Lens discernible; 0.5–3.5 mm long; with margins straight; linear; not in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum; 1 mm from hilum; flush; similar color as testa; darker than testa; darker red; within rim; rim color of testa, or lighter than testa. Endosperm present; trace; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; restricted to region of 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; notched at radicle; without lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; white to pink, or yellow; inner face flat, or wavy; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis straight; oblique to length of seed, or parallel to length of seed, or perpendicular to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; bulbose; lobe tip straight; oblique to cotyledons, or straight with embryonic axis; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary, or moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Tropical and eastern South America and eastern Asia to northeastern Australia.

New World, or Old World; Mexico, West Indies, Central America, and South America; Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Guianas; Southwest Asia, China, Indian Ocean, India, Indochina, Indonesia and the Philippines, Australia, and New Guinea.
 

Generic Notes

Other faboid species with red and black bichrome seeds include Abrus precatorius (5.01), whose seeds are deadly poisonous, and Rhynchosia pyramidalis (10.80), whose seeds are not poisonous.

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.