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

Indigenous. Indopacific. Occasional. Medium to large deciduous tree, up to 25 m
high, the trunk and branches usually with coarse spiny thorns; leaves, alternate, trifoliate,
membranous, rachis not including the petiole 12 to 40 cm long; petioles, 9 to 20 cm
long; leaflets, 6 to 30 cm long and nearly as wide, broadly triangular-ovate, rhombic or
cuspidate, acute-acuminate, rounded, acutish or truncate at base, lower leaflets somewhat
oblique, with prominent glands below the base of petiolules; petiolules, 5 to 14 mm long;
inflorescence, a dense axillary or terminal pedunculate raceme, up to 40 cm long, bearing
numerous flowers, about 6 cm long, clustered near the end of the raceme; calyx tube in
bud closed at orifice, early broken by the emergent corolla; petals, bright dark red or
scarlet, very unequal, the standard 5 to 8 by 2 to 3.5 cm, broadly elliptic, narrowed
proximally to a short claw, the keel petals separate, obovate, rounded at apex, nearly as
long as the wings, these obovate, rounded, about one-third as long as the standard; pod,
10 to 45 cm long and 2 to 3.5 cm in diameter, not or slightly constricted between the
seeds, the valves coarsely reticulate-veined, glabrous, black, tardily dehiscent; seeds, 1 to
12, 1.2 by 2.5 cm, ovoid, bright red to brownish red, the hilum oblong. Planted or
spontaneous on coastal strip and in old strip-mined land; a number of large specimens
along road near Nauru Phosphate Company tennis court area. Trunks and thick branches
used for living fence posts, and in canoe construction in the past; flowers used in
garlands in the past. 3(58737a), 5, 6, 7.
Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp. "gliricidia", "madre de cacao (mother of
cocoa)", "Nicaragua cocoa shade"
syn . Robinia. sepiurn Jacq.
Recent introduction. Central and northern So. America. Small semi-deciduous
fast-growing tree, up to 10 In tall, with pale bark and ascending stems; leaves, 15 to 25
cm long, imparipinnate, with 5 to 17 leaflets; leaflets, 3 to 8.5 cm long and 1.5 to 5 cm
wide, opposite, ovate, ovate-oblong to elliptic-oblong, obtusely acuminate, often with
brown blotches or bronzy and glaucous beneath, dull green above, glabrate; inflorescen-
ces, stiff short racemes, 5 to 13 cm long, on the older branches after the leaves have
fallen, bearing single flowers, each about 1.8 to 2 cin long, on the rachis; bracts, small,
bracteoles none; pedicels, 8 to 12 mm long, jointed at tip; calyx, cupuliform, puberulent,
red-tinged; petals 5, rose or paler pink, the standard, large, suborbicular, reflexed,
sometimes with small inflexed auricles, claw very short, with a pale yellow central
blotch, the wings falcate-oblong, free, shorter than the keel, the keel petals incurved,
sometimes partly yellowish; stamens, 10, the filaments of 9 connate into the sheath;
pods, 8 to 16 cm long and 1.5 to 1.9 cm wide, 2-valved, linear-oblong, flattened, non-
partitioned, dehiscent, the valves coriaceous; seeds, 2 to 9, purplish-brown. Planted
roadside ornamental on Meneng Terrace. Widely used in tropical America and elsewhere
as a shadetree for tree for cocoa, bananas and coffee and as a living fence and wind-