A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

LEGUMINOSAE 229
8. ADENANTHERA Linnaeus
Erect unarmed trees with 2-pinnate leaves. Flowers small, perfect,
5-merous, in spike-like racemes. Calyx campanulate, toothed. Petals val-
vate, cohering at the base, lanceolate. Stamens 10, free; anthers gland-
tipped. Ovary sessile, many-ovuled. Pod strap-shaped, falcate, the valves
coriaceous, twisted after dehiscence. Seeds 2-colored. (Greek "gland" and
''anther" from the gland-tipped anthers.)
Species 5 or 6 in most tropical countries, 1 in the Philippines.
1. A. intermedia Merr. Malasagad, Tanglin (Tag.).
An erect glabrous tree 10 to 15 m high. Leaves 25 to 40 cm long;
pinnae 4 to G, 10 to 20 cm long; leaflets 5 to 9, elliptic, truncate or slightly
retuse, when dry dark above, pale beneath, 2 to 4 cm long. Racemes in
the upper axils, solitary or paniculate, 12 to 20 cm long, slender. Flowers
numerous, brownish, about 3 mm long, their pedicles slender. Pods narrowly
oblong, about 15 cm long 1 to 1.3 cm wide, containing 8 to 12, somewhat
compressed, 8 mm long shining seeds, half red and half black.
Cementerio del Norte, fl. Aug.-Oct. ; widely distributed in the Philippines.
Endemic.
9. PARKIA R. Brown
Tall, unai-med trees with evenly bipinnate leaves, the leaflets very numerous,
small. Flowers in dense, long-peduncled, obovoid heads. Calyx
tubular, shortly 5-cleft, the lobes imbricate. Corolla tubular, somewhat
cleft. Stamens 10, exserted, the filiform filaments in the lower part united
with each other and with the corolla-tube; anthers gland-tipped. Ovary
stalked. Pod large, flat, strap-shaped coriaceous, very tardily dehiscent.
(In honor of M. Park, an African traveler.)
A genus of about 10 species, in the tropics of both hemispheres, 2
in the Philippines.
1. P. timoriana (DC.) Merr. Cupang (Tag.).
A very large tree 25 to 40 m high. Leaves evenly bipinnate, 30 to 80
cm long; pinnae 40 to 60, 8 to 20 cm long; leaflets 60 to 140, linear-oblong,
falcate, 6 to 12 mm long, close set, shining above, acute. Heads dense,
obovoid or pyriform, axillary, long-peduncled, up to 6 cm in length.
Flowers white and yellow, about 1 cm long. Pods 25 to 30 cm long, about
3.5 cm wide, rather thick, pendulous, black and shining when mature, con-
taining from 15 to 20 seeds.
A single tree in the old botanic garden, fl. Nov.; widely distributed in
the Philippines. Timor, its other range uncertain.
CAESALPINIOIDEAE
10. MEZONEURUM Desfontaines
Woody, prickly climbers with abruptly 2-pinnate leaves. Flowers in
panicled racemes. Calyx very oblique, usually deeply cleft, the disk mostly
basal, the lobes imbricate, the lowest one hooded, larger than the others.
Petals obovate, spreading, subequal. Stamens free, declinate, exserted.
Ovary many-ovuled; style filiform, incurved. Pod oblong, flat, thin, indehiscent,
with a broad wing extending down the upper suture. (Greek
"middle" and "nerve," in allusion to the nerved pods.)
Species 10 in the tropics of the Old World, 3 in the Philippines.