|
| The genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae |
Baithiaea filicifolia Drake
Type species: B. filicifolia Baill.
Habit and leaf form. Resinous, deciduous trees; unarmed.
The leaves compound (the petiole with a cupular gland); pinnate; paripinnate. The leaflets few per leaf (mostly 7–9); alternate; petiolulate; without noticeably twisted petiolules; not gland dotted, elliptic to ovate or oblong, basally truncate to wedge shaped, symmetrical or nearly so (only slightly unequal-sided); with a predominant ‘midrib’; without a continuous marginal nerve. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous in mature leaves (minute and caducous); membranous. Stipels absent.
Inflorescence and floral morphology. The inflorescences branched; on year-old wood, dense and complex, comprising large, showy clusters of panicles and racemes with flowers opening simultaneously. The flowers not distichous. Bracteoles two, minute, at the base of the hypanthium.
The flowers small; hermaphrodite; actinomorphic to slightly irregular (subactinimorphic); not pentamerous throughout; departing from pentamery in the calyx; coloured (sepals, corolla, staminal filaments and style all bright carmine pink). Floral tube length relative to total hypanthium + calyx length about 0.3. Hypanthium present; long-tapered to the base, fairly long (about 7–9 mm); more or less tubular. The perianth comprising distinct calyx and corolla. Calyx present; very gland dotted, 4; undivided or only shortly lobed in the bud; ultimately polysepalous; more or less regular (comprising two only slightly unequal pairs); members imbricate. Corolla present; only slightly irregular; 5; without greatly reduced members. Well developed petals 5. Corolla polypetalous. Petals all long clawed; imbricate; supposedly imbricate-ascending (?); pink to red. Disk present and conspicuous. The androecium comprising 10 members; not declinate; members all free of one another; members long-exserted, all more or less equal in length (the slender filaments more or less equal); comprising only fertile stamens. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers versatile, attached well above the base of the connective (the latter glandular); dehiscing introrsely. Ovary long stipitate; free. Stigma not dilated (or only very weakly so, the style slender, involute). Ovules numerous.
Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit indehiscent; straight (‘wavy’); not internally septate; without markedly twisting or enrolling valves; Acer-like, winged distally to the single seed (and with a submarginal ridge over the seed, which is located at the apex of the broad, thin wing, the latter tapering to the basal stipe); not becoming woody (with a thick, leathery rind). The mature valves without prominent venation. Seeds copiously endospermic; not arillate; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle.
Transverse section of lamina. Mesophyll secretory cavities absent.
Species number and distribution. 1 species (B. filicifolia). Western Madagascar.
Tribe. Cercideae.
Miscellaneous. Illustrations: • Brandzeia filicifolia: Baillon, Hist. des plantes 2 (1870).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, and classification. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1993 onwards. The genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English and French. Version: 4th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
