edgepedia

Fabaceae: legumes and the pea family, A to L

129 articles

Cytisus scoparius

Cytisus scoparius, commonly known as Scotch broom, is a yellow-flowered legume shrub native to Europe, planted for ornament and now an invasive weed on most continents.

Dalbergia

Dalbergia (rosewoods) is a pantropical legume genus of trees, shrubs, and lianas in Fabaceae, tribe Dalbergieae, with 275 accepted species; source of rosewood timber, CITES Appendix II since 2017.

Dalbergia granadillo

Dalbergia granadillo (zangalicua, cocobolo mexicano, granadillo) is a Mexican rosewood tree of Fabaceae, CITES Appendix II, IUCN Critically Endangered, with over 80% decline over three generations from illegal logging for guitars and Hongmu furniture.

Dalbergia sissoo

Dalbergia sissoo (shisham, Indian rosewood) is a nitrogen-fixing Fabaceae timber tree native from the Arabian Peninsula to Myanmar, widely planted in South Asia, IUCN Least Concern, CITES Appendix II via the genus, affected by die-back disease.

Delonix regia

Delonix regia, royal poinciana or flamboyant (gulmohar), a Fabaceae tree native to N & W Madagascar, grown tropics-wide for scarlet flowers; umbrella crown, 40-70 cm pods, Caution status in South Florida.

Desmodium

Desmodium (ticktrefoil, tickclover) is a genus of ~178 accepted Fabaceae species with lomentaceous pods bearing hooked hairs, native to the New World, Tropical Africa, and the southern Arabian Peninsula, used as forage legumes and in push–pull pest control.

Dipteryx

Dipteryx (cumaru, tonka bean trees; Dipteryx odorata, D. alata) is a Neotropical Fabaceae genus of 12 large canopy tree species, sources of tonka beans with coumarin, dense decking timber, and CITES Appendix II listing since 2022.

Dipteryx odorata

Dipteryx odorata, cumaru or tonka bean tree (Coumarouna odorata), a large Fabaceae tree of northern South America; seeds yield coumarin for perfume and food, timber traded as cumaru; IUCN Data Deficient, genus in CITES Appendix II.

Dolichos

Dolichos L. is a conserved legume genus (Fabaceae, Phaseoleae, Phaseolinae) of about 55-60 Old World tropical species, mostly African; distinguished from Macrotyloma by short standard appendages, reticulate pollen and purple flowers; hyacinth bean (D. lablab) now Lablab purpureus.

Drupe

Drupe (stone fruit): a fleshy fruit with a three-layered pericarp, thin exocarp, fleshy mesocarp, and hard lignified endocarp (pit or pyrene) around usually one seed; examples peach, cherry, plum, coconut, olive, almond, coffee.

Emile S. Gardiner

Emile S. Gardiner is an American research forester with the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station in Stoneville, Mississippi, known for work on oak regeneration and restoring bottomland hardwood forests on former farmland.

Endosperm

Endosperm: the triploid (2m:1p) nutritive seed tissue of flowering plants, formed by double fertilization of the central cell; site of genomic imprinting, source of cereal grain food, and sensitive to parental genome dosage.

Entada

Entada (Adans., 1763) is a pantropical legume genus (Fabaceae, Caesalpinioideae) of lianas and trees, 40 species after Elephantorrhiza was merged in 2022, with metre-long pods, sea-heart drift seeds, and saponin-rich medicinal uses.

Epiphyte

Epiphyte: a plant that grows on another plant for support only, taking no nutrients or water from the host. Includes orchids, bromeliads, ferns, mosses, and lichens; about 10% of vascular plant species, threatened by climate change and deforestation.

Erythrophleum

Erythrophleum (ordeal tree genus) is a genus of 12 toxic legume tree species in Fabaceae, native to Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and Australia, containing the heart-poisoning alkaloid erythrophleine.

Eucalyptus oil

Eucalyptus oil, also called eucalyptol-rich essential oil, is steam-distilled from Eucalyptus globulus, polybractea, or smithii leaves, contains at least 70% 1,8-cineole, and is used for cough relief but is toxic if ingested.

Fabaceae

Fabaceae (Leguminosae), the legume family: third-largest angiosperm family, ~751 genera and ~19,500 species, six subfamilies, pod fruits, rhizobial nitrogen fixation, and major food crops like soybean, pea, and bean.

Fabales

Fabales is an order of flowering plants with four families: Fabaceae, Polygalaceae, Quillajaceae, and Surianaceae. The legumes alone hold over 95 percent of its more than 20,000 species.

Faidherbia albida

Faidherbia albida (apple-ring acacia, winter thorn; formerly Acacia albida) is the sole species of its genus, a dryland African leguminous tree with reverse leaf phenology, leafless in the rains, widely used in agroforestry to raise crop yields and soil fertility.

Falcataria

Falcataria is a genus of three fast-growing, nitrogen-fixing legume trees native from eastern Malesia to the Santa Cruz Islands. Its best-known species, Falcataria falcata (formerly F. moluccana, albizia, batai), is planted for timber and shade but invades Pacific forests.

Falcataria moluccana

Falcataria moluccana, also called Falcataria falcata, Moluccan albizia, batai, or sengon, is a fast-growing nitrogen-fixing Fabaceae tree native to the Moluccas, New Guinea, and Solomon Islands, widely planted for timber yet invasive in Hawaii.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), annual Fabaceae herb from the Mediterranean and western Asia, grown for bitter maple-scented seeds and kasuri methi leaves; India leads production; studied for blood sugar effects.

Four-leaf clover

Four-leaf clover: a rare four-leaflet variant of normally trifoliate clover, mostly white clover (Trifolium repens); recessive trait plus environment, found about 1 in 5,000, a luck symbol.

Frankincense

Frankincense, also called olibanum, is the aromatic gum resin tapped from Boswellia trees in Arabia, Africa, and India, burned as incense since antiquity and traded across the ancient Mediterranean world.

Gametophyte

Gametophyte: the haploid, gamete-producing multicellular generation of plants, alternating with the diploid sporophyte. Dominant in bryophytes, independent in ferns and lycophytes, reduced to a few cells in seed plants such as pollen.

Genista

Genista (woadwaxen) is a Fabaceae genus of yellow-flowered brooms, tribe Genisteae, native from Macaronesia and Europe to the Caucasus, with about 145 accepted species, toxic quinolizidine alkaloids, and the historic dye plant G. tinctoria.

Genisteae

Genisteae (染料木族) is a legume tribe (Faboideae) of brooms, gorses, and lupins, about 25-26 genera and 550-570 species, defined by quinolizidine alkaloids and four major clades including Lupinus and the Cytisus-Genista complex.

Gleditsia

Gleditsia (locusts, honeylocusts) is a genus of 13 accepted spiny deciduous legume trees in Fabaceae, native to Asia, North and South America; honey locust G. triacanthos is widely cultivated.

Gliricidia

Gliricidia (quickstick, madre de cacao) is a Fabaceae genus of five species native from Mexico to Peru; G. sepium is a nitrogen-fixing agroforestry tree used as green manure, fodder, and living fence across the tropics.

Gliricidia sepium

Gliricidia sepium (quickstick, madre de cacao) is a Fabaceae tree native from Mexico to Colombia, planted pantropically for fodder, green manure, shade, living fences, and fuelwood; toxic to rodents, IUCN least concern.