Schotia brachypetala Sonder

  • Authority

    Isley, Duane. 1975. Leguminosae of the United States: II. Subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (2): 1-228.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Schotia brachypetala Sond.

  • 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 - Glabrate, spreading, shrubby tree; young growth and inflorescence puberu-lous. Leafstalk 6-12 cm; leaflets 3-5(-6) pairs, sessile to subpetioluled, obovate-elliptic to oblong, 2.5-5(-8) cm, 2-2.5 r, coriaceous, glossy, reticulate-nerved. Stipules scale-like, inconspicuous, deciduous. Flowers in crimson-red, mostly pendent, short, dense, simple to usually irregularly compound, intercalary racemes from old wood. Pedicels 2-4 mm, jointed with the turbinate hypanthium; hypanthium-calyx ca 1.5 cm, calyces hiding the short or obsolescent petals; filaments separate, dilated and shortly connate at base. Legume heavily turbinate-pedicelled below the conspicuous stipe, asymmetric-ellipsoid and 1-seeded or irregularly oblong and 2-seeded, then sinuate or notched between seeds, compressed but thick, 4-6 cm long, ca 3 cm wide; ventral suture expanded into a distinct wing terminating in an asymmetric beak 4-6 mm; valves woody, glandular-pustulate. Seeds flat.

  • Discussion

    Saraca cauliflora Hort. pro parte CN 2n = 24 (Turner and Fearing, 1959). U.S. Schotia is easily confused in fruit. The legumes are similar in all three species and diagnostic pedicel-hypanthium characters, evident in flower, become uncertain. Possibly, the species may be distinguished by characters presented in the accessory key. On the evidence of specimens, S. brachypetala is of both Florida and California while S. latifolia and S. speciosa are present in California only. Menninger (1958) refers to S. brachypetala only in Florida. As with S. afra, foliage of S. brachypetala is considerably more diverse in Africa than in the United States.

  • Distribution

    S Florida; urban California. Novelty. April-June(-Oct.). South Africa.

    United States of America North America| South Africa Africa|