Fabaceae

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Fabaceae

• very large family of herbs, shrubs, vines, woody
  climbers (lianas), and giant emergent forest
  trees with a great variety of habit including
  aquatics and xerophytes
• many economically important species
• third largest flowering plant family after the
  orchids (Orchidaceae) and daisies (Asteraceae)

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• Distribution cosmopolitan distribution in
  tropical, subtropical and temperate zones
• found as major components of most of the worlds
  vegetation types and many have the ability to
  colonize marginal or barren lands because of
  their capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen
  through root nodules

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Diagnostic Features

• Lvs. alt. pinnately compd. and stipulate
• Ulex has simple and small lvs.
• Acacia can have petioles flattened into phyllodes
• stipular spines in some species of Acacia and
  Robinia
• garden pea has large, leaf like stipules
• leaves could be trifoliolate eg Trifolium and
  Medicago
• lvs. can alter their position at night by folding
• lvs. of Mimosa pudica can open by shock stimulus
  (pulvinus)
• tendrils or hooks are modified branches, lvs. or
  leaflets

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Subfamily Caesalpinioideae

• trees, shrubs and lianas
• flws. relatively large, generally zygomorphic
• petals imbricate in bud, sepals free, petals most
  showy part
• lvs. pinnate or bipinnate
• stamens 10, sometimes dimorphic or heteromorphic
• root nodules uncommon

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Cassia
Delonix regia
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Subfamily Mimosoideae

• trees, shrubs, lianas, rarely aquatic herbs
• small, regular flws. aggregated into heads or
  spikes, actinomorphic
• petals valvate in bud, sepals and petals
  generally united at base
• lvs. mainly bipinnate and often with specialized
  glands Australian Acacias with phyllodes
• stamens 10-many (sometimes over 100), all the
  same, most showy part
• root nodules generally present

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Albizia
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Subfamily Papilionoideae

• herbs, shrubs, trees, lianas, and twiners
• flws. pea-like (papilionaceous corolla),
  zygomorphic
• petals imbricate in bud, median petal (standard,
  vexillum or banner) overlaps others, sepals
  united at base into a calyx tube, petals most
  showy part
• lvs. simple or once pinnate, a few palmate, some
  with tendrils, only one rare species bipinnate
• stamens 9-10-many (sometimes dimorphic)
• root nodules generally present

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Diagnostic Features (cont.)

• Gynoecium all legumes have a single carpel,
  superior ovary
• Fruit one chambered pod (legume) or constricted
  in the middle (lomentum / loment)
• sometimes indehiscent as in groundnut, Arachis
• may dehisce explosively in Ulex and Lupinus
• legumes may be dry or fleshy, inflated or
  compressed, winged or not, greenish or brightly
  colored and range in size from a few mm to 30cm

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Desmodium
Tamarindus
Caesalpinia
Entada
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Classification

• Division Magnoliophyta
• Class Magnoliopsida
• Subclass Rosidae
• Order Fabales
• Family Fabaceae

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Classification

• consists of 727 genera and 19325 species
• monospecific genera 192 (26)
• genera with 2-10 spp. 304 (42)
• genera with 11-19 species 190 (26)
• genera with 100 or more spp. 41 (6)

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Classification

• Fabaceae is divided into 3 subfamilies and 36
  tribes
• subfamily Caesalpinioideae comprises 4 tribes and
  2250 species
• subfamily Mimosoideae comprises 4 tribes and 3270
  species
• subfamily Papilionoideae has 28 tribes and 13800
  species

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Top Legume Genera

• Astragalus 2400 species
• Acacia senu lato 1450 species
• Indigofera 700 species
• Crotolaria 690 species
• Mimosa 500 species

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• over a quarter of the species in the family occur
  in just the four largest genera
• nearly 500 legume genera (68) are small, being
  either monospecific or containing up to 10
  species
• it is now generally accepted that the Leguminosae
  is more closely related to Polygalaceae,
  Suriniaceae, and Quillajaceae, which together
  form the order Fabales
• thought to be related to the Connaraceae and
  Sapindaceae in the past

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Economic Importance

• as important as grasses but range of use is
  broader
• legume products contribute enormously to the
  worlds economy through
• food (animals and humans), drinks
• pharmaceuticals, medicine
• biodiesel fuel, biotechnology
• building and construction, textile, furniture,
  crafts
• mining, paper and pulp, manufacturing processes
• chemicals and fertilizers, waster recycling
• horticulture, pest control, ecotourism

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• Ceratonia siliqua is used for carob (original
  carat used as a standard weight by jewellers),
  used as chocolate substitute and coffee
  substitute carob gum used in foods and
  cosmetics, inks, paints, polishes, etc.

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• 40 to 60 million metric tons of nitrogen are
  fixed annually by agriculturally important
  legumes and 3-5 million metric tons by legumes in
  natural ecosystems
• grain and forage legumes are grown on approx. 180
  million hectares (12 to15) of the Earths arable
  surface and account for 27 of the worlds
  primary crop production

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• 33 of dietary protein needs of humans are
  satisfied by legumes
• main dietary legumes (pulses) include several
  species of bean (Phaeseolus), pea (Pisum
  sativum), chickpea (Cicer arietinum), broad bean
  (Vicia faba), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), cowpea
  (Vigna unguiculata) and lentil (Lens culinaris)
• legumes like soybean (Glycine max) and peanut
  (Arachis hypogaea) contribute to more than 35 of
  the worlds processed vegetable oil

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• legumes are used widely in the temperate and
  tropical biomes as forage crops eg Medicago
  sativa (alfalfa) and Lotus corniculatus in North
  America