Securigera

Taxonomy

Securigera A.P. de Candolle Nom. cons. In Lamarck et A. P. de Candolle, Fl. Franç. ed. 3. 4: 609. 17 Sep 1805.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.13.12.
Tribe: Loteae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 5 studied; 12 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
, or a lomentloment:
usually dry fruit derived from a single carpel that breaks transversely into one-seeded fruit segments
(or a lomentloment:
usually dry fruit derived from a single carpel that breaks transversely into one-seeded fruit segments
segment); unilocular; 8.5–9.5 cm long; 0.15–0.6 cm wide; 0.1–1.6 cm thick; more than 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 to curved (slightly); not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical; linear; not inflated; flattened, or terete; with beak; declined, or hooked; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; long tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous; seed chambers externally visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin not constricted; margin with sulcus; margin plain, or embellished; margin with thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; substipitate, or nonstipitate; indehiscent (the chartaceous valve surface between thickened sutures open transversely and irregularly in S. securidaca). Replum invisible. Lomentloment:
usually dry fruit derived from a single carpel that breaks transversely into one-seeded fruit segments
indehiscent; segments (articles) inconspicuous; segments (articles) 5–10 mm long; segments (articles) widest across seed area; segments (articles) with apical 1 different shape than middle one(s); segments (articles) linear. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; bichrome (sutures thickened and a lighter or darker shade); brown (including dirty-brown), or tan (and greenish-tan), or green; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; pilose (but not on thickened sutures); with pubescence golden; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; veined, or not veined; longitudinally veined relative to fruit length (1 medial on each valve), or reticulately veined (faint); not tuberculate; wrinkled (faintly); grooved (faintly); 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; septate, or subseptate; with septa thicker than paper, firm; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 7–9; length parallel with fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only; filiform; straight. Aril absent.

Seed: 3.5–4 mm long; 1.5–4 mm wide; 1–1.5 mm thick; not overgrown; angular, or not angular (some are square in outline); symmetrical; linear, or rectangular, or quadrangular; compressed, or flattened; 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; glossy, or dull; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; light to dark reddish brown, or tan (reddish near hilum); glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; without faboid split; punctiform; marginal according to radicle tip; flush; not within corona, halo, or rim, or within halo; halo darker than testa. Lens discernible, or not discernible; with margins curved; circular; not in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum; 0.3 mm from hilum; mounded; same color as testa; within halo; halo color darker than testa. Endosperm present; thick; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to embryo. 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; yellow, or 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, or linear; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons, or 1/2 to nearly length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Southern Europe.

Old World; southern Europe, Mediterranean, Russia, Africa, and Southwest Asia.

Generic Notes

Securigera has been maintained separately from Coronilla because of its fruits being heavy, flattened, and apparently not divided and thus not breaking into articles at maturity. It was united with Coronilla (13.11) for diverse reasons by Schmidt (1979b). Lassen (1989) realigned Coronilla (13.11), Hippocrepis (13.13), and Securigera and in so doing recognized 12 species of Securigera, the species count that we are using. When doing this Lassen devaluated the lomentloment:
usually dry fruit derived from a single carpel that breaks transversely into one-seeded fruit segments
versus legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
character.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Loteae

In 1981, Polhill (1981k) accepted much broader generic circumscriptions in tribe Loteae, and only accepted four genera in the tribe: Cytisopsis, Anthyllis (13.02), Hymenocarpus (13.04), and Lotus (13.07). In his most recent classification of Fabaceae (Polhill, 1994a, 1994b), he combined tribes Loteae and Coronilleae and accepted six segregate genera in Loteae, s.s.: Tripodion (13.03), Dorycnopsis (13.05), Dorycnium (13.06), Podolotus J.F. Royle (13.08), Pseudolotus K.H. Rechinger (13.09), and Vermifrux (13.10).