Aubrevillea Pellegr., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 80: 466. 1933.

Bruneau, Anne, de Queiroz, Luciano Paganucci, Ringelberg, Jens J., Borges, Leonardo M., Bortoluzzi, Roseli Lopes da Costa, Brown, Gillian K., Cardoso, Domingos B. O. S., Clark, Ruth P., Conceicao, Adilva de Souza, Cota, Matheus Martins Teixeira, Demeulenaere, Else, de Stefano, Rodrigo Duno, Ebinger, John E., Ferm, Julia, Fonseca-Cortes, Andres, Gagnon, Edeline, Grether, Rosaura, Guerra, Ethiene, Haston, Elspeth, Herendeen, Patrick S., Hernandez, Hector M., Hopkins, Helen C. F., Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau, Hughes, Colin E., Ickert-Bond, Stefanie M., Iganci, Joao, Koenen, Erik J. M., Lewis, Gwilym P., de Lima, Haroldo Cavalcante, de Lima, Alexandre Gibau, Luckow, Melissa, Marazzi, Brigitte, Maslin, Bruce R., Morales, Matias, Morim, Marli Pires, Murphy, Daniel J., O'Donnell, Shawn A., Oliveira, Filipe Gomes, Oliveira, Ana Carla da Silva, Rando, Juliana Gastaldello, Ribeiro, Petala Gomes, Ribeiro, Carolina Lima, Santos, Felipe da Silva, Seigler, David S., da Silva, Guilherme Sousa, Simon, Marcelo F., Soares, Marcos Vinicius Batista & Terra, Vanessa, 2024, Advances in Legume Systematics 14. Classification of Caesalpinioideae. Part 2: Higher-level classification, PhytoKeys 240, pp. 1-552 : 1

Aubrevillea Pellegr., Bull. Soc. Bot. France 80: 466. 1933.

Figs 120 , 121 , 122 , 124

Type.

Aubrevillea kerstingii (Harms) Pellegr. [≡ Piptadenia kerstingii Harms]

Description.

Tall trees (Fig. 120G ), unarmed. Stipules inconspicuous, setaceous. Leaves bipinnate, eglandular; pinnae 4-8 pairs per leaf; leaflets 8-30 opposite pairs per pinna, sessile, oblong-oblanceolate or falcate, apex often emarginate, base asymmetric (Fig. 121E ). Inflorescence a panicle of spiciform racemes, terminal or axillary. Flowers shortly pedicellate, bisexual, pale green to pale yellow or white; calyx gamosepalous, cupuliform, shallowly toothed, puberulous; hypanthium as long as the calyx tube; petals lanceolate, basally connate, puberulous outside, adnate basally with the stamens and a perigynous disc forming a stemonozone; stamens (8-)10, fertile, filaments basally connate, anthers eglandular; pollen tricolporate, finely reticulate, dispersed as monads; ovary villose, ovules 5-7, style short, stigma widely porate. Fruit (Fig. 122J ) laterally compressed, papyraceous, indehiscent, oblong, its proximal end twisted. Seeds flat, reniform, lacking endosperm.

Chromosome number.

Unknown.

Included species and geographic distribution.

Two species ( A. kerstingii and A. platycarpa Pellegr.) from tropical west and central Africa, from Liberia and Guinea east to eastern Central African Republic and south to the Democratic Republic of Congo (Fig. 124 ).

Ecology.

Rainforest, with outliers in seasonally dry Sudanian woodland and wooded grassland.

Etymology.

Named for Prof. A. Aubreville (1897-1982), a noted French forester, ecologist and taxonomist ( Luckow 2005).

Human uses.

Used in traditional medicines, for timber, and as a shade tree ( Luckow 2005).

Notes.

Pellegrin (1933) established the genus Aubrevillea to accommodate a newly described tree with indehiscent, papery fruits with a twisted base from Côte d’Ivoire, A. platycarpa , and proposed the new combination A. kerstingii for a tree with similar fruits from Togo and Côte d’Ivoire in light of new fruiting material that Harms (1907) had not seen when he tentatively placed this taxon in Piptadenia .

Taxonomic references.

Villiers (1989).

Figures

Figure 120. Entada clade variation in habit A Entada rheedei Spreng., huge woody liana, India B Entada wahlbergii Harv., thin woody climber in fruit, Benin C Entada leptostachya Harms, scandent shrub in fruit, Madagascar D Entada burkei (Benth.) S. A. O'Donnell & G. P. Lewis, erect shrub, South Africa E Entada abyssinica Steud. ex A. Rich., small tree, Rwanda F Entada elephantina (Burch.) S. A. O'Donnell & G. P. Lewis, geoxylic suffrutex, South Africa G Aubrevillea platycarpa Pellegr., large tree with plank buttresses, Guinea H Piptadeniastrum africanum (Hook. f.) Brenan, large tree with aliform buttresses, Guinea I P. africanum, large tree in forest canopy, Sierra Leone. Photo credits A Shiwali Samant, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 58810243) B M Schmidt, Dressler et al. (2014) C merveille, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 102007815) D pete _ leroux, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 184645340) E jordivanoort, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 31303989) F AE van Wyk G-I X van der Burgt.

Figure 121. Entada clade variation in foliage and flowers A Entada rheedei Spreng., young bipinnate leaf terminating in a bifurcate tendril (modified terminal pinnae pair), India B Entada tuberosa R. Vig., bipinnate leaf terminating in a bifurcate, thickened tendril (modified terminal pinnae pair), and rachis and rachillae terminating in a yellowish glandular mucro, Madagascar C Entada mannii (Oliv.) Tisser., oblong leaflets with rounded apices and midvein positioned centrally, Republic of Congo D Entada obliqua (Burtt Davy) S. A. O'Donnell & G. P. Lewis, asymmetric leaflets with acute apices and midvein positioned closer to distal margin, South Africa E Aubrevillea platycarpa Pellegr., oblong-obovate leaflets with emarginate apices, Guinea F Piptadeniastrum africanum (Hook. f.) Brenan, finely divided bipinnate leaves, Benin G E. rheedei, subsessile flowers with greenish-yellow corollas and cream-coloured stamen filaments, India H Entada stuhlmannii (Taub.) Harms, spiciform raceme of flowers with deep red corolla and stamen filaments, Mozambique I P. africanum, spiciform raceme of flowers with yellowish-white corolla (base of petals tinged pinkish) and stamen filaments, and red anthers with a white apical anther gland, Republic of Congo J P. africanum, terminal panicles of spiciform racemes, Republic of Congo. Photo credits A Shiwalee Sawant, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 58810126) B Andry. A. R, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 30264619) C DJ Harris, Dressler et al. (2014) D Andrew Hankey, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 3213785) E X van der Burgt F G Georgen, Dressler et al. (2014) G Dinesh Valke, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 133409879) H © Warren McCleland, all rights reserved, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 152390385) I-J X van der Burgt.

Figure 122. Entada clade variation in fruits and seeds A Entada rheedei Spreng., mature, gigantic, torulose, slightly curved, segmented craspedium with woody endocarp, India B Entada gigas (L.) Fawc. & Rendle, mature, laxly spirally twisted, segmented craspedium, Costa Rica C Entada spiralis Ridl., immature, tightly spirally twisted, segmented craspedium, Singapore D Entada africana Guill. & Perr., mature, segmented craspedia, distinctly umbonate over seeds, with exocarp peeling away, Togo E Entada polystachya (L.) DC., mature, segmented craspedia, slightly umbonate over seeds, with exocarp already shed, Costa Rica F Entada dolichorrhachis Brenan, mature, small, torulose, slightly curved, segmented craspedium, Zambia G Entada burkei (Benth.) S. A. O'Donnell & G. P. Lewis, immature craspedia, not segmented, South Africa H E. burkei, mature craspedia, not segmented, entire valves breaking away from replum, exocarp peeling away, South Africa I Entada goetzei (Harms) Harms, immature, elongate craspedia, not segmented, distinctly umbonate over seeds, Mozambique J Aubrevillea platycarpa Pellegr., papery, indehiscent fruits with twisted bases (holotype A Aubreville 990, MNHN-P-P 00418246), Cote d'Ivoire K Piptadeniastrum africanum (Hook. f.) Brenan, coriaceous pods, dehiscent along single suture, Democratic Republic of Congo L P. africanum, flattened, oblong seeds surrounded by broad, membranous wing, with funicle attached at middle of long axis of seed, Uganda M E. gigas, large, laterally compressed, cordate seed without pleurogram, collected in beach wrack, USA N E. rheedei, large, laterally compressed, globular seeds without pleurogram, South Africa O E. africana, laterally compressed, elliptic seeds with closed pleurogram, Togo P E. burkei, globular seed without pleurogram, South Africa. Scale bars: 1 cm (M); 2 cm (N); 5 mm (O, P). Photo credits A Dinesh Valke, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 159405372) B Pedro Blanco, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 181372721) C Cerlin Ng CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 D B Eichhorn, Dressler et al. (2014) E Marvin Lopez M, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 181531329) F W McCleland, Dressler et al. (2014) G P van Wyk; H tjeerd, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 64689073) I BT Wursten, Hyde et al. (2022) J MNHN (2022) (CC BY 4.0) K P Latham, Dressler et al. (2014) L David Bygott, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 62615168) M Robb Deans, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 2611187) N Ricky Taylor, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 44440338) O B Eichhorn, Dressler et al. (2014) P Joseph Heymans, iNaturalist (https: // www. inaturalist. org / photos / 123571608).

Figure 124. Distribution of Aubrevillea based on quality-controlled digitised herbarium records. See Suppl. material 1 for the source of occurrence data.