Blanchetiodendron Barneby & J.W. Grimes, Mem. New York. Bot. Gard. 74(1): 127. 1996.

Figs 265, 266, 267

Type.

Blanchetiodendron blanchetii (Benth.) Barneby & J.W. Grimes [≡ Enterolobium blanchetii Benth.]

Description.

Unarmed trees; perulate buds at some leaf axils, the perules imbricate and striate. Stipules absent. Leaves bipinnate; petiolar nectary near or above mid-petiole, sessile, cupular or shallow-cupular; pinnae 2-4 pairs; leaflets 8-15 pairs, (sub)opposite, variable in size and shape. Inflorescence units capitate or umbelliform, grouped in axillary pseudoracemes or terminal panicles (Fig. 265A, B). Flowers dimorphic, the peripheral ones slenderly pedicellate, the terminal one sessile or shortly pedicellate; sepals 5, gamosepalous; petals 5, gamopetalous; stamens ca. 26-38 in peripheral flowers and 30-46 in terminal flowers (Barneby and Grimes 1996), filaments basally fused into a tube, stemonozone present, anthers rimose; pollen in 16-celled polyads; ovary glabrous. Fruit a plano-compressed, oblong, legume, inertly dehiscent through both margins, valves papery (Fig. 266A). Seeds elliptic to suborbicular, narrowly winged, pleurogram absent.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Included species and geographic distribution.

Monospecific ( B. blanchetii), endemic to north-eastern Brazil mostly from central Bahia state, extending to northern Minas Gerais and southern Piauí (Fig. 267).

Ecology.

Seasonally deciduous and semi-deciduous forests and woodlands from the Caatinga and Atlantic Forest phytogeographical domains, from 450 to 1000 m elevation (Queiroz 2009).

Etymology.

The genus is named after the Swiss naturalist Jacques Samuel Blanchet, and dendron (Greek = tree).

Human uses.

Unknown.

Notes.

The genus Blanchetiodendron was described as a monotypic genus by Barneby and Grimes (1996) to accommodate B. blanchetii, previously included in Enterolobium, Pithecellobium Mart. (Bentham 1876) or Albizia (Lewis 1987).

Barneby and Grimes (1996) included Blanchetiodendron (together with Leucochloron and Chloroleucon (Benth.) Britton & Rose) in the informal Chloroleucon alliance because of the presence of axillary perulate resting buds, but this group has since been shown to be polyphyletic (Koenen et al. 2020a). Blanchetiodendron is sister to the rest of the Inga clade and can be diagnosed by the heteromorphic capitate umbelliform inflorescences grouped in axillary efoliate pseudoracemes or in terminal panicles.

Taxonomic references.

Barneby and Grimes (1996); Morim (2020); Queiroz (2009).