Paraserianthes lophantha
Credits
This is a placeholder entry.
Recommended citation
'Paraserianthes lophantha' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Cape Leeuwin Wattle
Synonyms
- Albizia lophantha (Vent.) Benth.
- Mimosa lophantha Vent.
Other taxa in genus
Editorial Note
See the genus entry for a discussion of the taxonomy. The brief text below is supplied pending a fuller account, to be provided when funds are available. If you would like to sponsor the entry please write to editor@treesandshrubsonline.org
Tree to 8 m, with densely tomentose young branches and leaflets. Stipules lanceolate, caducous; petioles with one or more nectaries; leaflets bicoloured, dull olive-green above, paler beneath. Flowers in axillary racemes, either solitary or 2–4 together. Perianth 5-merous, calyx shallowly campanulate with small triangular teeth; corolla greenish, lobed; stamens very numerous (96–154), relatively short in proportion to the calyx, lemon- or greenish-yellow, barely (≤0.5 mm) united and adnate to corolla at base; ovary glabrous. Fruit a pod, several per spike, broadly linear or narrowly oblong, reddish brown, sometimes pruinose, glabrous, containing 8–11 blackish seeds. (Barneby & Grimes 1996).
The sole species in the genus, native to western Australia and western Malesia. The minute anthers and numerous stamens recall some species of Acacia (Barneby & Grimes 1996). Like Albizia, Paraserianthes is placed in tribe Ingeae, characterised by filaments united at the base, in contrast to tribe Acacieae (incl. Acacia, Vachellia, Senegalia) in which the filaments are free. In Paraserianthes, however, the filaments are barely united – hence the similarity to Acacia.
