Papilonoceae

Papilonoceae

It is a subfamily of family Leguminosae. It is
distributed all over the world.

Vegetative Characters

Trees, shrubs, herbs; root with root nodules
Stem: erect or climber
Leaves: alternate, pinnately compound or simple; leaf base,
pulvinate; stipulate; venation reticulate.

Floral characters

Inflorescence: racemose

Flower: bisexual, zygomorphic

Calyx: sepals five, gamosepalous; imbricate aestivation

Corolla: petals five, polypetalous, papilionaceous, consisting of a posterior standard,
two lateral wings, two anterior ones forming a keel (enclosing stamens and pistil),
vexillary aestivation

Androecium: ten, diadelphous, anther dithecous

Gynoecium: ovary superior, mono carpellary, unilocular with many ovules, style
single

Fruit: legume; seed: one to many, non-endospermic

Floral Formula: Å K(5) C1+2+(2) A(9)+1 G1

Economic importance
Many plants belonging to the family are sources of pulses (gram, arhar,
sem, moong, soyabean; edible oil (soyabean, groundnut); dye (indigofera);
fibres (sunhemp); fodder (Sesbania, Trifolium), ornamentals (lupin, sweet
pea); medicine (muliathi).