Trees [shrubs], armed, stipules spiny. Stems ascending and spreading, glabrous [puberulent], without resting buds, short shoots (brachyblasts) present. Leaves alternate, even-bipinnate, not sensitive to touch; stipules present; petiolate, petiole without extrafloral nectaries; pinnae 2 or 3 pairs, opposite, extrafloral nectary present between pinnae; leaflets 6–10(or 12), opposite, blade margins entire, palmate brochidodromous venation, more conspicuous abaxially, main vein central, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences pedunculate, 20–35-flowered, axillary, spikes [heads], forming pseudoracemes over short shoots; bracts present. Flowers mimosoid, actinomorphic, homomorphic; calyx campanulate, lobes 4 or 5, calyx and corolla connate, valvate; corolla greenish; stamens ca. 50, connate into a tube; anthers dorsifixed. Fruits legumes, sessile, turgid, sausagelike, slightly curved or falcate, broadly linear-oblong in outline, indehiscent, woody, glabrous, without thickened margins; exocarp light brown to maroon; exocarp and endocarp well developed, with seed chambers, without constriction between seeds, undulate [or not] above seeds. Seeds 8–12, turgid, plump, oblong in outline, ± spherical or rhomboid; pleurogram present, aril and endosperm absent, embryonic axis rounded. x = 13.

Distribution

Texas, n, e Mexico.

Discussion

Species 3 (1 in the flora).

Ebenopsis confinis (Standley) Britton & Rose occurs in southeastern Baja California and Baja California Sur, Mexico; E. caesalpinioides (Standley) Britton & Rose is known only from the coastal plain near Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico (R. C. Barneby and J. W. Grimes 1996).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Ebenopsis ebano