Deciduous trees, small or shrubby, not climbing, dioecious or rarely monoecious
Leaves
simple, deeply bilobed, cordate basally
Inflorescence
a terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed raceme
Flowers
unisexual, rarely bisexual, irregular
Calyx
with turbinate tube and 4 or 5 short, acute lobes
Petals
5, subequal
Stamens
10, fertile in male flowers, reduced to staminodes in female flowers; filaments villous below; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits
Ovary
many-ovuled, stalked; stigma sessile, thick, capitate, flattened-globose; funicle several times as long as ovule
Pod
linear to oblong, leathery or woody, indehiscent
Seeds
irregularly arranged, embedded in pulp
x = 12, 13, 14 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Piliostigma
Hochst.
Hochstetter: 598 (1846) name conserved
Milne-Redhead: t. 3460 (1947)
Brenan: 206 (1967)
Coetzer & Ross: 58 (1977)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 3, Africa to Asia and Australia
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Piliostigma thonningii
(Schumach.) Milne-Redh., N Namibia, Northern Province and Mpumalanga
References:
BRENAN, J.P.M. 1967.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Leguminosae
(part 2).
Caesalpinioideae
COETZER, L.A. & ROSS, J.H. 1977. Subfamily 2.
Caesalpinioideae
.
Flora of southern Africa
16,2
HOCHSTETTER, C.F.F. 1846.
Flora
29
MILNE-REDHEAD, E. 1947.
Icones plantarum
. 3460
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