Trees [shrubs, vines], unarmed. Stems spreading, glabrous. Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate; stipules present, caducous; petiolate; leaflets 5–9[–35], stipels absent [present], blade margins entire, surfaces glabrous or glabrate. Inflorescences 25–40-flowered, axillary [terminal], pseudoracemes [racemes or panicles], flowers mostly paired, rarely fasciculate, at nodes; bracts present, caducous; bracteoles 2, at pedicel apex. Flowers papilionaceous; calyx broadly campanulate, truncate, lobes obsolete [short]; corolla white to pink or lavender; stamens 10, submonadelphous, vexillary stamen distinct at base; anthers dorsifixed. Fruits legumes, within persistent calyx, sessile, compressed, straight, narrowly ovoid, not beaked, woody or rigidly leathery, tardily dehiscent or 2-valved, glabrous. Seed 1 [several], brown, reniform. x = 11.

Distribution

Introduced; Florida, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, n Australia, introduced also in tropical areas worldwide.

Discussion

Species ca. 150 (1 in the flora).

S. T. Dunn (1912) recognized 134 species in Millettia. R. Geesink (1984) claimed that Millettia encompasses about 90 species distributed from Africa to Malesia, with one species from India to northern Australia and the western Pacific; he also included the genus Hesperothamnus Brandegee, with about five species in Mexico, in his concept of Millettia. G. P. Lewis et al. (2005) maintained Hesperothamnus as separate from Millettia, stating that the latter contains 150 species.

Millettia is conserved against Pongamia Adanson (1763), which is itself conserved, making Pongamia Ventenat (1803), an unnecessary renaming of the genus; the Ventenat name appears in some regional treatments of legumes.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Millettia pinnata