Templetonia

Taxonomy

Templetonia R. Brown In W.T. Aiton, Hortus Kew. ed. 2. 4: 269. Dec 1812.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.23.01.
Tribe: Bossiaeeae.
Group: Templetonia.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 4 studied; 9 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
; unilocular; 1.5–8 cm long; 0.6–1.6 cm wide; 0.25 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, or symmetrical; elliptic, or linear; with both sutures parallelly curved to both sutures unequally curved; not inflated; flattened; without beak; short tapered at apex, or rounded at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit to oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; short tapered at base, or rounded 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; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; stipitate, or nonstipitate; with the stipe 5–10 mm long; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; apical and down; active, or passive; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull, or semiglossy; monochrome; dark reddish and dark greenish brown; with surface texture uniform; glabrous; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; surface not veined; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; brown; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; septate, or nonseptate; with septa thin (tissue paper-like), flexible; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1–12; length parallel with fruit length, or oblique to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only; thick; straight, or hooked. Aril present; fleshy; when fleshy caplike (T. biloba (G. Bentham) R.M. Polhill), or cupshaped (lipped or not); entire; covering less than 1/2 of seed; brown.

Seed: 3.5–14.5 mm long; 2–8.5 mm wide; 1.2–3.3 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; symmetrical (except for hilum); elliptic to ovate; compressed; 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; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; yellowish to reddish or olive brown; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by aril; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform; 1 mm long; with curved outline; elliptic; subapical to radicle tip; flush; within rim; rim color darker than testa. Lens discernible; 1 mm long; with margins straight, or curved; rhombic; not in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum; 1 mm from hilum; barely mounded; dissimilar color from testa; darker than testa; brown; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire 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; partially concealing radicle; split over radicle; with lobes; with lobes touching (auriculate); with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; yellow; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis almost straight; parallel to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; nearly linear; straight with embryonic axis; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Australia.

Old World; Australia.

Generic Notes

Polhill (1981n) reported nine species in this genus, but Ross (1982) recognized eleven species, the number used in our study. Polhill (1976) has a full plate of the external and internal morphology of the seeds of Templetonia biloba (G. Bentham) R.M. Polhill.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Bossiaeeae

The Bossiaeeae with ten genera traditionally has been divided into two groups in part on fruit and seed characters. The Templetonia group with the first four genera (including at the time Lamprolobium, 23.02) has non-winged, coriaceous legumes and compressed seeds bearing a collarlike often-lipped aril (except Templetonia biloba (G. Bentham) R.M. Polhill), and a short, straight radicle. The Bossiaea group with the remaining genera has the legumes keeled to winged or not so, plump seeds often covered by a hooded caplike aril (lacking in Muelleranthus (23.08) and Ptychosema (23.09)), and a slender deflexed radicle exserted from the cotyledons. Crisp and Weston (1987, pages 105–107) in their cladistic analysis of the Bossiaeeae, Brongniartieae (22), and Mirbelieae (24), provided compelling evidence that the Bossiaeeae should be redefined to include only the Bossiaea group (genera 23.05–23.10). The Templetonia group would be moved to the Brongniartieae becoming genera three through eight, after Brongniarta (22.01) and Harpalyce (22.02). The proposed generic sequence would be: 3, Templetonia (23.01); 4, Lamprolobium; 5, Plagiocarpus (23.03); 6, ?Genus A (Templetonia incana J.H. Ross); 7, ?Genus B (Templetonia biloba (G. Bentham) R.M. Polhill); and 8, Hovea (23.04). They (Crisp and Weston, 1995) retracted their proposal to transfer the Templetonia group because of Chappill's (1995) cladistic analysis of the entire family, and we have used the traditional circumscriptions of the two tribes (Pohill, 1994a, 1994b).