Trees or shrubs of varying size, rarely subshrubs, spiny or rarely unarmed
Leaves
bipinnate, with few pairs of opposite pinnae; petiole with circular, sessile, apical gland and sometimes smaller, similar ones on rachis of pinnae; leaflets small, many, mostly opposite, linear, oblong, fusiform
Inflorescence
spike-like, axillary, sometimes with globose heads
Flowers
bisexual, small
Calyx
campanulate, 5-merous
Corolla
with 5 linear petals, these fused or ± free, glabrous or pubescent, frequently villous or pilose inside towards tip
Stamens
5 + 5, free; anthers elliptic, dorsifixed, introrse, with an apical, pedicellate, globose or ovoid connectival gland
Pods
linear, straight, falcate, annular to spirally coiled
Seeds
ovoid, compressed, hard, brown
x = 13, 14 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
*Prosopis
L.
Linnaeus: 10 (1767)
Hutchinson: 289 (1964)
Burkart: 219 (1976)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 44, SW Asia, Africa, and predominantly America
Southern Africa
: *
Prosopis chilensis
(Molina) Stuntz (Mesquite) and 3 other species have been introduced and have become naturalised
References:
BURKART, A. 1976. A monograph of the genus
Prosopis
(
Leguminosae
subfamily
Mimosoideae
).
Journal of the Arnold Arboretum
57
HUTCHINSON, J. 1964. Order LEGUMINALES.
The genera of flowering plants
1. Oxford University Press, Oxford
LINNAEUS, C. 1767.
Mantissa plantarum
1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
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