Differing from the type in its rather larger leaves spreading and less crowded on the branches, its oblong to oblong-obovoid dark purple or nearly black usually rather smaller fruit, and in its long-acuminate and more prominently angled stone.
A tree, 20°—30° or rarely 50° high, with an erect trunk 12′—16′ in diameter, erect and spreading branches forming a wide open head, and slender branchlets marked by scattered pale lenticels; often smaller and occasionally a shrub. Bark gray slightly tinged with red and covered with small closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Florida, banks of streams and borders of the Everglades, near Little River to the Everglade keys, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands and in Jamaica.
XXIII. LEGUMINOSÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate usually compound leaves, regular or papilionaceous usually perfect flowers; stamens 10 or indefinite, with diadelphous or distinct filaments and 2-celled anthers, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary superior, 1 or many-celled, inserted on the bottom of the calyx. Fruit a legume. Of the four hundred and thirty genera of the Pea-family now recognized and widely distributed in all temperate and tropical regions, eighteen have arborescent representatives in the United States.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.
Subfamily 1. Mimosoideæ. Calyx 4—6-toothed, the teeth valvate in the bud; petals as many as the teeth of the calyx, valvate in the bud; ovules numerous, suspended in 2 ranks from the inner angle of the ovary, superposed, anatropous, the micropyle superior; stamens much exserted; leaves twice pinnate; cotyledons oval or orbicular, flat; radicle straight. Stamens numerous (more than 10); seeds without albumen. Filaments more or less united into a tube. Filaments united. Valves of the legume not separating at maturity from the margins.1. [Pithecolobium.] Valves of the legume separating at maturity from the persistent margins.2. [Lysiloma.] Filaments free or the inner ones slightly united at base.3. [Acacia.] Stamens 10; filaments free; seeds with albumen. Legume plano-compressed, dehiscent; flowers in globose heads.4. [Leucæna.] Legume terete or compressed, indehiscent; flowers in cylindric spikes.5. [Prosopis.] Subfamily 2. Cæsalpinioidæ. Calyx 5-lobed or toothed, the divisions usually valvate in the bud; corolla imperfectly papilionaceous or nearly regular; petals 5, imbricated in the bud, the upper petal inside and inclosed by the others; stamens 10 or less; filaments free; anthers introrse; ovules numerous (sometimes 2 in one species of Gleditsia), superposed, anatropous, the micropyle superior; seeds albuminous. Flowers imperfectly papilionaceous; calyx 5-toothed; legume flat, wing-margined; leaves simple6. [Cercis.] Flowers regular. Flowers polygamous or diœcious. Calyx-tube elongated, 5-lobed; petals 5; stamens 10, shorter than the petals; legume thick and woody; leaves twice pinnate.7. [Gymnocladus.] Calyx-tube short, 3—5-lobed; petals 3—5; stamens 3—5, longer than the petals; legume leathery; leaves once and twice pinnate.8. [Gleditsia.] Flowers perfect. Legume linear, torulose, acuminate at the ends, the valves contracted between the seeds; rachis of the leaf spinescent.9. [Parkinsonia.] Legume oblong, compressed; rachis of the leaf not spinescent.10. [Cercidium.] Subfamily 3. Papilionatæ. Calyx of 5 more or less united sepals; corolla of 5 irregular petals, papilionaceous, the upper petal (standard) larger than the others and inclosing them in the bud, usually turned backward or spreading, the 2 lateral petals (wings) oblong, exterior to the 2 lower connivent more or less united petals (keel) inclosing the stamens and pistil; stamens 10, 9 of them united into a tube cleft on the upper side, the 10th and upper stamen separate, or all distinct; ovary 1 or many-celled by cross partitions; ovules amphitropous, the micropyle superior; seeds usually without albumen; leaves once pinnate. Stamens distinct. Flowers in racemes; legume terete, contracted between the seeds.11. [Sophora.] Flowers in panicles; legume compressed.12. [Cladrastis.] Stamens diadelphous (9 and 1). Flowers in racemes. Leaves glandular-dotted. Leaves many-foliolate; petals free and distinct.13. [Eysenhardtia.] Leaves simple; wings and keel-petals adnate to the tube of the stamens.14. [Dalea.] Leaves without glandular dots. Legume compressed; stipules becoming spinescent, persistent.15. [Robinia.] Legume turgid, the valves unequally convex by the growth of the seeds. Leaves 10—15-foliolate, without stipules or stipels; petals purple or violet.16. [Olneya.] Leaves 3-foliolate, with minute stipules and gland-like stipels; petals usually scarlet.17. [Erythrina.] Flowers in axillary panicles; pod linear, longitudinally 4-winged.18. [Ichthyomethia.]
1. PITHECOLOBIUM Mart.
Trees or shrubs, with slender branches armed with the persistent spinescent stipules. Leaves petiolate, bipinnate, the pinnæ few-foliolate, their rachis generally marked by numerous glands between the pinnæ and between the leaflets. Flowers perfect or polygamous, from the axils of minute bracts, in pedunculate globose heads or oblong cylindric spikes, their peduncles in terminal panicles or axillary fascicles; calyx campanulate, short-toothed; corolla funnel-shaped, the petals as many as the teeth of the calyx, joined for more than half their length; stamens numerous, united at base into a tube free from the corolla; anthers minute, versatile; ovary stipitate, contracted into a slender filiform style, with a minute terminal stigma. Legume compressed, 2-valved, dehiscent, the valves continuous or interrupted within. Seeds compressed, suspended transversely; funicle filiform or expanded into a fleshy aril; hilum near the base of the seed; seed-coat thin or thick, marked on each of the 2 surfaces of the seed by a faint oval ring or oblong depression; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; the radicle included or slightly exserted.
Pithecolobium with more than a hundred species is widely distributed through the tropical and subtropical regions of the two worlds, and is most abundant in tropical America. Of the four species found within the territory of the United States three are arborescent.