atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

mm long, compressed-oval, white to gray or blackish. Cultivated food plant, the young
tender pod which are cooked as a vegetable; reported in 1935 to have been introduced,
but not seen in 1978 or thereafter.
Delonix regia (Bojer) Raf. "poinciana", "royal poinciana", "flame tree", "flamboyant",
"flame of the forest" bin ("bean"), red tree (N); te tua (K); fuatausaga (T)
Pre-World War I1 introduction. Madagascar. Occasional. Rapidly growing,
medium-sized, spreading, broad-crowned deciduous tree, up to 10 to 12 m high and
several times as wide, with smooth, light-colored bark; leaves, mostly 20 to 60 cm long,
alternate, bipinnate, frond-like, with 10 to 20 pairs of pinnae; pinnae, about 10 cm long,
each with 25 to 35 pairs of leaflets; leaflets, 0.5 to 1 cm long, opposite, oblong-elliptic,
obtusish, base oblique, subsessile, glabrous, medium green; stipules, inconspicuous,
forked at base, the divisions pinnate, with 3 to 6 leaflets; inflorescence, an axillary
corymbose-raceme bearing large, showy flowers, 7.5 to 10 cm across, aggregated near
ends of branchlets; bracts, small, caducous, bracteoles none; calyx, short-tubed, sepals 5,
valvate, subequal, free at antithesis; petals 5, about 4 to 7 cm long, subequal in size,
brilliant crimson to scarlet or red-orange, conspicuously clawed, imbricate (overlapping),
the uppermost with whitish or yellowish streaks or mottling, broad-bladed and stalked
with their distal part abruptly expanded, orbicular with wavy edges; pods, 13 to 60 cm
long and 3 to 5 cm wide, linear-oblong, parallel-edged, flattened, shortly-beaked at tip,
woody or coriaceous, pendent, septate, dark reddish-brown turning black, filled within
between the seeds, many-seeded, persistent, dehiscent; seeds, oblong-cylindric, trans-
verse, gray with pale margins, testa hard. Planted ornamental; flowers used in garlands.
3(58620), 5(121), 6, 7.
Derris trifoliata Lour. "beach derris root", "beach poison vine"
syns. Derris uligin,osa Benth. ; Robinia uliginosa Willd.
Indigenous. Trop. Africa to Polynesia. Occasional. Glabrous creeping and
climbing shrub with prostrate rooting stems and rather large, scattered lenticels, climbing
to a height of 5 to 6 m; leaves, alternate, 3 to 7-foliate; leaflets, 4 to 12 cm long and 2 to
6 cm wide, ovate to elliptic-ovate, acute-acuminate or cuspidate at apex (acumen rounded
or emarginate at tip), base obtuse or rounded-subtruncate, subcoriacious, rather glossy
medium-green, slightly paler but not glaucous dorsally, the secondary nerves prominulous
beneath, petiolate; petioles, 4 to 8 mm long; inflorescences, axillary short-pedunculate
racemes bearing flowers on short slender pedicels; calyx, 2 to 3 mm long, pale green;
corolla, 6 to 8 mm long, petals, pale pink or greenish-white and faintly pink-tinged; the
filaments and styles white; pods, 3 to 5 cm long and 2 to 3.5 wide, subreniform or
subrhomboid to broadly oblong, flat, with a wing, 1 to 2 mm broad, along the upper
suture, greenish or tan, conspicuously veiny, 1- to 2-seeded; seeds, 1.5 to 2.4 cm long,
oblong-reniform. In forest on cliffs and steep slopes of escarpment surrounding the