Uraria

Taxonomy

Uraria A.N. Desvaux J. Bot. Agric. 1: 122. Mar 1813.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.11.16.
Tribe: Desmodieae.
Subtribe: Desmodiinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 8 studied; 20 in genus.

Description

Fruit: 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); 0.3–0.9 cm long; 0.2–0.4 cm wide; 0.1–0.2 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight, or curved (or slightly curved); plicate, or not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; oblong; with both sutures parallelly curved, or 1 straight and 1 curved suture; narrowing in several places, resembling Desmodium (3.11.09) fruit; not inflated; compressed, or terete; without beak; rounded at apex; 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; membranous; seed chambers externally visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin constricted; margin constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; substipitate; indehiscent. 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) 2.5–3.5 mm long; segments (articles) widest across seed area; segments (articles) with all essentially similar in shape; segments (articles) ovate. Epicarp dull, or glossy; monochrome; brown, or tan, or black, or gray; with surface texture uniform; glabrous (widely scattered hairs may be on sutures), or pubescent and indurate; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; puberulent; with pubescence golden, or gray (with straight-tipped or straight- and hooked-tipped hairs); with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; pliable; with hair bases plain; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating, or exfoliating (U. picta leaving a shiny gray mesocarp); without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present, or absent; thin to very thin; surface not veined; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; chartaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull, or glossy; opaque; monochrome; brown (to grayish); 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; remaining fused to epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 2–6; length parallel with fruit length, or transverse to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus of 1 length only; more or less thick; straight. Aril present; dry; when dry rim-aril; entire; reddish brown.

Seed: 1.8–2.5 mm long; 1.5–2 mm wide; 0.7–0.8 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular, or angular; asymmetrical; reniform, or elliptic, or mitaform, or triangular; 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; dull, or glossy; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; yellowish to reddish brown, or tan; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines present, or absent; reticulate. 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; punctiform, or larger than punctiform; to 0.5 mm long; with curved outline; oval; marginal according to radicle tip, or between cotyledon and radicle lobe; slightly recessed; within halo (faint); halo darker than testa (slightly). Lens discernible; with margins straight, or curved; rectangular; circular; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum, or adjacent to hilum; 0.1 mm from hilum; mounded; dissimilar color from testa; darker than testa; reddish brown, or black; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to testa, or 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; tan, or yellow; 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; linear, or bulbose; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Old World tropics.

Old World; Africa to Southwest Asia to India to Indochina to China to Australia to Indonesia and the Philippines to New Guinea to Fiji.

Generic Notes

Urariopsis Schindler (11.16) in Ohashi et al. (1981) is a synonym of Uraria (Haas et al., 1980). Urariopsis cordifolia (C.F.W. Wallroth) A.K. Schindler is based on U. cordifolia C.F.W. Wallroth. Jha and Pandey (1988) studied the seeds of Uraria and Alysicarpus (11.18).

Tribal Notes

Tribe Desmodieae

Ohashi et al. (1981) started their treatment of the Desmodieae with these thoughts: "A sensible classification of Desmodieae is prejudiced by the traditional over-weighting of fruit characters." (sic) "The fruit normally consists of indehiscent jointed articles, but fruits that open have arisen at least seven times..." They supplemented their text with a fruit-seed plate. They placed Brya and Cranocarpus (11.02), the only two New World endemic genera, in the new subtribe Bryinae, "characterized most notably by glochidiate hairs." Bailey et al. (1997), using the chloroplast rpl2 intron and ORF184, suggested that Brya, Cranocarpus, Phylacium (11.22), and Neocollettia (11.26) are not members of Desmodieae and that they probably belong in Aeschynomeneae (14).