Ostryocarpus

Taxonomy

Ostryocarpus J.D. Hooker In W. J. Hooker, Niger Fl. 316. Nov-Dec 1849.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.7.
Tribe: Millettieae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 6 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 6–7 cm long; 4–5 cm wide; 0.3–0.5 cm thick; length less than twice as long as width; 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; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; elliptic to ovate, or obliquely ovate; with both sutures unequally curved; not inflated; flattened; with beak, or without beak; straight, or hooked; with papery fragile beak up to 1 cm long, or solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; rounded at apex, or tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; rounded 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; margin embellished; margin with wing(s); wing(s) present; wing(s) 2; wing(s) 2–3 mm wide; wing(s) sutural; wing(s) on 1 suture; nonstipitate; indehiscent. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; mottled; brown; with brown overlay (darker); mottling color combination variable; with surface texture uniform; glabrous; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; sometimes blistered; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown; smooth, or transversely wrinkled; with adhering pieces of testa, or without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; with wing(s) extending into epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1–6 (from literature); length parallel with fruit length, or oblique to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 4–5 mm long; of 1 length only; flattened; straight. Aril absent.

Seed: Ca. 36 mm long; ca. 28 mm wide; ca. 3.5 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; asymmetrical; irregularly reniform; flattened; with surface smooth; without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; with shallow hilar sinus; without umbo on seed faces; without medial ridge on each face. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; completely adhering to endocarp; fused to endocarp, at most a transparent brown tissue; chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by fusion to endocarp. Lens not discernible. Endosperm absent. Cotyledons smooth; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; with only 1 folded; sufficiently folded for inner face to touch itself; portions of inner folded face unequal; 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; bulbose; lobe tip straight; oblique to cotyledons; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Tropical Africa to southeast Asia.

Old World; Southwest Asia, Africa, and Indonesia and the Philippines.

Generic Notes

Little material was available for study, And no mature seeds were seen. The only seed was destroyed during rehydration and examination, and could not be illustrated.

Tribal Notes

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).