Uleanthus

Taxonomy

Uleanthus H.A.T. Harms Verh. Bot. Vereins Prov. Brandenburg 47: 150. 1 Oct 1905.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.2.29.
Tribe: Sophoreae.
Group: Dussia.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 1 studied; 1 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
; unilocular; 23–28 cm long; 2.5–4 cm wide; 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; asymmetrical; irregularly fusiform; with both sutures unequally curved; not inflated; compressed; with beak; declined; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit to oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; long tapered 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 plain; wing(s) absent; substipitate; 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; brown; with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate; with hairs appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; sparsely sericeous; with pubescence golden; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating; with cracks; cracking oblique to fruit length; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thick; surface uniformly veined; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; mottled; yellow; with mottling more or less uniform; with dark brown overlay; scurfy and smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 5–8 (from literature); length transverse to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus ca. 4 mm long; of 1 length only; thick; contorted. Aril present; fleshy; when fleshy marginal hilar; entire; covering less than 1/2 of seed; brown.

Seed: Ca. 20 mm long; ca. 14 mm wide; ca. 3.5 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular; symmetrical; ovate; flattened; with surface wrinkled, or grooved; longitudinal; 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 to glossy; not modified by a bloom; colored; mottled; with infrequent mottles; brown; with darker brown overlay; glabrous; not smooth; with elevated features; wrinkled. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; fully concealed; concealed by funicular remnant; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split lighter colored than the rest of the hilum and therefore conspicuous; larger than punctiform; ca. 4.5 mm long; with curved outline; elliptic; apical at apex of radicle tip; raised; within rim; rim color darker than testa. Lens not discernible. Endosperm absent. Cotyledons not smooth; 5–7-branched grooves (from veins of testa) on each face; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; not folded; margin not entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; notched; similar at apex; not concealing radicle; notched at radicle; with lobes; with lobes not touching; without basal groin formed by lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; tan; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis straight; parallel to length of seed; with a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; truncate; lobe tip straight; straight with embryonic axis; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule rudimentary; glabrous.

Distribution

Amazon basin.

New World; South America (Brazil); Brazil.

Generic Notes

Only one seed and part of one valve were available for study.

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.