Adenanthera pavonina L.

  • Authority

    Isley, Duane. 1973. Leguminosae of the United States: I. Subfamily. Mimosoideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (1): 1-152.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Adenanthera pavonina L.

  • Description

    Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /home/emu/nybgweb/www-dev/htdocs/science-dev/wp-content/themes/nybgscience/lib/VHMonographsDetails.php on line 179

    Species Description - Tree to 20 m or more. Leaves large, without petiole-rachis gland, 3-4 dm, pinnae 3-4 pairs; leaflets alternate, petioled, 6-8 pairs, elliptic to ovate, 2-3.5 cm long, ca 1.5 cm wide, glabrous or with minute puberulence. Inflorescences yellowish to orange, of axillary racemes (1-1.5 dm) or terminal compound racemes (1.5-3 dm). Legume narrowly oblong, laterally compressed, straight or usually curved, to 2.5 dm long, 1 cm wide; valves coriaceous but thin, twisting and fraying. Seeds 8 mm diam, plump, shiny red.

  • Discussion

    CN n= 13 (Mehra & Hans, 1969), 2n = 64 (Tixier, 1965). The red sandalwood is a striking tree on the basis of its enormous leaves and red seeds exposed by the twisting pod valves. It is treated by Bailey (1949) and Barrett (1956). I have collected it twice during all too brief visits to the Miami area, so I presume it is reasonably common. Of the two conflicting chromosome number determinations, that of Mehra and Hans (1969), in the context of usual mimosoid numbers, is more apt to be correct.

  • Distribution

    S Florida. Cultivated ornamental and escaped. April. Red sandalwood, Circassian bean. Native to warm Asia, naturalized in American tropics, especially West Indies.

    Asia|