Pericopsis

Taxonomy

Pericopsis G.H.K. Thwaites Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 413. 1864 (sero).

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.2.17.
Tribe: Sophoreae.
Group: Ormosia.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 4 studied; 4 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 7–24 cm long; 2–4 cm wide; 0.4–0.7 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; 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; circular, or elliptic, or fusiform, or linear; not inflated; compressed, or flattened; with beak, or without beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; rounded at apex, or short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; rounded 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, or invisible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin not constricted, or constricted; margin slightly constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin embellished; margin with wing(s); wing(s) present; wing(s) 2; wing(s) 2–4 mm wide; wing(s) sutural; wing(s) on both sutures; stipitate, or substipitate; with the stipe 0.1–6 mm long; indehiscent. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; mottled; brown; with brown overlay (darker); mottling color combination variable; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or pubescent but soon deciduous; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; sparsely villous; with pubescence white; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined, or not veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; dotted; not exfoliating; without cracks, or with cracks (tiny); cracking oblique to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; surface not veined; 1-layered, or 2-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; with solid layer over solid layer; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; septate; with septa thicker than paper, firm; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; with wing(s) extending into epicarp; entire. Seed(s) 1–6; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 0.5–1 mm long; of 1 length only; filiform; straight. Aril present, or absent; dry; when dry rim-aril; entire; cream, or tan, or yellow.

Seed: 9–16.5 mm long; 7–13.5 mm wide; 2.5–5 mm thick; not overgrown; angular, or not angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; elliptic, or irregular, or oblong, or ovate; 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; glaucous; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or mottled; with frequent mottles; brown, or orange; with brown overlay; glabrous; smooth; chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim present, or absent; wing-like around seed (very narrow). Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible; from hilum through lens to base of seed and terminating, or hilum through base of seed and up the other side; not bifurcating; color of testa; flush, or raised. Hilum present; partially concealed; concealed by aril remnant, or funiculus; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform; 0.5–2.5 mm long; with curved outline; elliptic; subapical to radicle tip; recessed; within halo; halo darker than testa. Lens discernible; 1.5–3.5 mm long; with margins straight; narrowly diamond-shaped; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum, or adjacent to hilum; 0.5 mm from hilum; slightly mounded; same color as testa, or similar color as testa; darker than testa; reddish brown; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present, or absent; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to testa. Cotyledons smooth, or not smooth; 1–3 grooves on each face, or wrinkled; 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, or not entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; wavy; similar at apex; partially concealing radicle; notched at radicle, or split over radicle; with lobes; with lobes touching (auriculate); with basal groin formed by lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; tan, or yellow; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis oblique, or straight; oblique to length of seed, or parallel to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; bulbose, or linear; lobe tip straight, or curved; oblique to cotyledons, or straight with embryonic axis; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Africa (3 spp.) and Ceylon to New Guinea and Micronesia (1 sp.).

Old World; Africa, or Indian Ocean, or Indochina, or Indonesia and the Philippines, or Pacific, or New Guinea.

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.