Viguieranthus

Taxonomy

Viguieranthus J.-F. Villiers In Du Puy et al., The Leguminosae of Madagascar 271. 2002.

Subfamily: Mimosoideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 2.5.09A.
Tribe: Ingeae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 0 studied; ca. 23 in genus (18 Madagascarian endemic species).

Description

Fruit: A legume; unilocular; 6–18 cm long; 0.5–1.2 cm wide; 2–9 times longer than wide to 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; not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical; narrowly oblong to linear, or moniliform (narrowly), or elliptic (narrowly); not inflated; without beak; blunt at apex to rounded at apex, or tapered at apex, or abruptly long acuminate at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit (Viguieranthus perrieri (R. Vig.) Villiers); tapered at base, or long tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous to ligneous, or chartaceous; seed chambers externally visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin not constricted; margin without sulcus; margin embellished; margin with thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; substipitate to stipitate; with the stipe 5 mm long; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures. Replum invisible. Epicarp monochrome; reddish-brown or brown, or black (brownish); with surface texture uniform; pubescent and indurate, or glabrous; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; eglandular; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features; veined; not tuberculate; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Seed(s) 8–10.

Seed: 6–12 mm long; 4–7.5 mm wide; not overgrown; angular, or not angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical (rarely); rhombic to oblong, or ovate, or elliptic. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; free from endocarp; not modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome; black, or brown (to dark blackish brown); glabrous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible.

Distribution

Madagascar and Asia.

Old World; Madagascar, India, and Indochina (Barneby, 1998; Du Puy et al., 2002).

Generic Notes

Barneby (1998) reported that J.-F. Villiers was planning to publish the genus Viguieranthus for the Madagascarian species of Calliandra (2.5.09). He also suggested that the Indo-Burmese C. cynometroides R.H. Beddome, C. geminata G. Bentham, and C. umbrosa N. Wallich may also be members of this genus. Villiers (2002) published the genus Viguieranthus in The Leguminosae of Madagascar (Du Puy et al., 2002) with 17 endemic and one near-endemic (V. subauriculatus J.-F. Villiers is found on Madagascar and the Comoro Islands) species in Madagascar and ca. five species in Asia; his species count is used. Villiers (2002) referred to the genus Viguieranthus as, "relatively close to the genus Calliandra Benth. However, it differs from this latter in its leaves with a single pair of pinnae, and its inflorescences in which all of the flowers are fertile and similar to each other (two types of flowers present in the inflorescences of Calliandra). The organisation of the flower is also different: the sepals are imbricate (in bud), the stamens are fused together and to the petals at the base, and often also to the intrastaminal disk, when present (not fused to the petals in Calliandra)." No specimens were available for study, but data was extracted from The Leguminosae of Madagascar (Du Puy et al., 2002), which included more than 75% of the species.