| # The genera of Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae and Swartzieae |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Erythrophleum Afzel ex G. Don

Erythrophloeum, Erythrophlaeum Reichb., Fillaea Guill. et Perr., Laboucheria F. Muell., Mavia Bertol.

Type species: E. guineense G. Don.

Habit and leaf form. Trees; unarmed.

Phyllotaxy spiral. The leaves compound; bipinnate; with opposite or sub-opposite pinnae (in few pairs); with alternate leaflets. The leaflets petiolulate; without noticeably twisted petiolules; symmetrical or nearly so; pinnately veined, with a predominant ‘midrib’. Stipules absent or early caducous or very inconspicuous in mature leaves; membranous. Stipels absent.

Inflorescence and floral morphology. The inflorescences terminal; branched; of racemose units; panicles. The flowers subsessile, not distichous. Bracts small, absent at anthesis. Bracteoles absent; absent at anthesis.

The flowers small; hermaphrodite; actinomorphic; pentamerous; white or green (greenish yellow or white). Floral tube length relative to total hypanthium + calyx length about 0.5. Hypanthium present; short, cupular to tubular. The perianth comprising distinct calyx and corolla. Calyx 5; not covering the rest of the flower in bud; usually distinctly gamosepalous; more or less regular (with short, subequal teeth); members imbricate, or not imbricate. Corolla present; regular; 5; without greatly reduced members; polypetalous. Petals sessile; slightly imbricate; imbricate-ascending. Disk absent. The androecium comprising 10 members; not declinate; members all free of one another; members all more or less equal in length, or markedly unequal (then alternately long and short); comprising only fertile stamens. Fertile stamens 10. Anthers attached at the base of the connective (but sagittate beneath the attachment); dehiscing introrsely; dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary long stipitate; free. Stigma not dilated (the style short). Ovules numerous.

Fruit, seed and seedling. Fruit a two-valved pod; straight; not internally septate (pulpy between the seeds); compressed, oblong, without markedly twisting or enrolling valves; becoming woody, or not becoming woody (generally leathery). The mature valves without prominent venation. Seeds endospermic; not arillate; with a straight or slightly oblique radicle; amyloid-negative. Cotyledons flat, not flat; of Type 4; with a vascular system in one plane.

Transverse section of lamina. Leaves without conspicuous phloem transfer cells in the minor veins. Druses absent from the mesophyll. Mesophyll secretory cavities absent. Adaxial hypodermis absent. Leaf girders absent. Laminae dorsiventral. Mesophyll without unaligned fibres or sclereids. Minor veins mainly with abundant accompanying fibres.

Leaf lamina epidermes. Epidermal crystals present, or not seen either adaxially or abaxially; prisms. Simple unbranched hairs common; scabrid, or smooth. No compound or branched eglandular hairs seen. Capitate glands not seen. Hooked hairs not seen. Cassieae-type leaf pseudo-glands not seen. Expanded and embedded hair-feet absent. Basally bent hairs present. Adaxial: Adaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls markedly sinuous in high-focus optical section; conspicuously pitted. Stomata adaxially common and widespread, or adaxially very rare. Abaxial: Abaxial stomata predominantly paracytic. Abaxial epidermis papillate interveinally, or not papillate; with the papillae not over-arching the stomata. Abaxial interveinal epidermal cell walls straight, or gently undulating; conspicuously pitted in optical section, or not conspicuously pitted in optical section; staining normally with safranin; of medium thickness.

Wood anatomy. Wood without septate fibres; storied, or not storied; without normal intercellular canals; without traumatic canals. Intervascular pits medium to large.

Pollen ultrastructure. Tectum punctate. Length of colpi greater than one half pole to pole distance (no margocolpus).

Cytology. Basic chromosome number, x = 12. 2n = 24.

Species number and distribution. About 10 species. Seychelles, tropical and eastern Asia, Australasia.

Tribe. Caesalpinieae.

Miscellaneous. Illustrations: • Erythrophleum fordii: Hook. Ic. Pl.15 (1883). • Erythrophleum suaveolens (as guineense): Engler & Drude, Pflanzenwelt Afrikas 9 (1915). • E. suaveolens (as guineense): Wilczek, in Fl. du Congo Belge (1952). • Erythrophleum ivorense: Aubréville, Flore du Gabon (1968).

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’.

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