Schefflerodendron

Taxonomy

Schefflerodendron H.A.T. Harms Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 30: 87. 12 Mar 1901.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.7.
Tribe: Millettieae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 4 studied; 6 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
; unilocular; 5–11 cm long; 2–3.5 cm wide; 2–3 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; asymmetrical; irregular, or obliquely obovate; with 1 straight and 1 curved suture, or both sutures unequally curved; widest near apex; not inflated; terete; with beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit to oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit to oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; leathery to ligneous; seed chambers externally invisible; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; substipitate, or nonstipitate; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; apical and down; active; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; mottled; brown; with brown overlay; mottling color combination variable; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; villous; with pubescence brown; with pubescence uniformly distributed, or pubescence denser near sutures, sparser centrally; with simple hairs; stiff; with hair bases plain; glandular, or eglandular; with glandular dots; distributed over entire fruit; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features and recessed features, or elevated features, or recessed features; veined, or not veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; pusticulate; grooved; not exfoliating; with cracks, or without cracks; cracking oblique to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thick; surface uniformly veined; 2-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; with solid layer over solid layer; ligneous to coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; streaked; brown; with streaking more or less uniform; with black overlay to brown overlay; hairy; without adhering pieces of testa; with hairs scattered over endocarp; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1(–2); length oblique to fruit length to parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus ca. 3 mm long; of 1 length only; thick; straight. Aril present; dry; when dry hippocrepiform rim-aril, or rim-aril and tongue-aril; entire; brown to cream.

Seed: 11–18 mm long; 11–15 mm wide; 5–10 mm thick; not overgrown; angular, or not angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; circular, or irregular, or ovate; terete, or flattened; 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; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; dark brown; glabrous; not smooth; with elevated features and recessed features, or elevated features, or recessed features; wrinkled; pitted with small separate pits; chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; visible; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform; ca. 2 mm long; with curved outline; circular; subapical to radicle tip; recessed; within rim; rim color lighter than testa. Lens discernible; with margins curved; circular; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum; recessed; same color as testa; brown; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering at least 1/2 of embryo, but not entire embryo; adnate to testa. Cotyledons smooth, or not smooth; sulcate; 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; partially concealing radicle; notched at radicle; with lobes; with lobes touching (auriculate); without basal groin formed by lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; creamy white; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis oblique; oblique to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; linear; lobe tip straight; oblique to cotyledons; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Tropical Africa.

Old World; Africa.

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).