Trees, [rarely shrubs], unarmed. Stems usually erect to ascending, less commonly scandent, young growth glabrate to sericeous, peduncles and pedicels eglandular. Leaves alternate to subopposite, odd-pinnate; stipules present, caducous; petiolate; leaflets (7–)13–21(–25)[–41], stipels absent or inconspicuous, blade margins entire, surfaces glabrate to strigose. Inflorescences 20–100-flowered, axillary, racemes; bracts present; bracteoles absent. Flowers papilionaceous; calyx campanulate, lobes 5 (inconspicuous); corolla pinkish [whitish or purplish]; stamens 10, diadelphous; anthers basifixed; style glabrous, without pollen brush distally; stigma terminal, capitate, ciliate. Fruits legumes, short-stipitate, erect, laterally compressed, linear, elastically dehiscent, glabrous. Seeds [2 or] 3–10[–15], lenticular; with apical hilum. x = 10, 11.

Distribution

Introduced; Florida, Mexico, Central America, nw South America, introduced also in West Indies (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands), s Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands.

Discussion

Species 5 (1 in the flora).

Gliricidia is native to lowland, seasonally dry and upland pine-oak woodlands in Mesoamerica and coastal Ecuador and adjacent Peru (M. Lavin and M. Sousa S. 1995; Lavin et al. 2003).

Gliricidia is not readily distinguished from other woody papilionoid genera even though the monophyly of the genus and its sister relationship to the Antillean genus Poitea Ventenat are well supported by molecular and, secondarily, morphological characters in a phylogenetic analysis (M. Lavin et al. 2003). All five species of the genus produce showy flowers, with most along a single rachis reaching anthesis nearly simultaneously. Of the related woody papilionoid genera that share this flowering habit, Gliricidia has a calyx that is fairly distinctive in being either tubular or campanulate but usually persisting with the maturing or mature fruit and having relatively short to inconspicuous lobes.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Gliricidia sepium