Thanks Sir for starting the week with a very nice informative mail. On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 9:21 PM, Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dear friends > With Mahadeswara ji having already made an impressive beginning of the > week, I expect and request full participation from all the members. Here is > brief introduction to the Group.: > > Family Fabaceae > Subfamily Mimosoideae DC. > Bentham & Hooker, Takhtajan, Thorne, APG III and APweb as Mimosoideae > Cronquist and Dahlgren as family Mimosaceae. > > 40 genera, 2,500 species > Distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. > > Salient features: Trees, shrubs or herbs, leaves usually pinnate compound > with pulvinate base, flowers actinomorphic, corolla not papilionaceous, > petals valvate, sepals united, odd sepal anterior, stamens 4-many, free or > connate, filaments often long exserted and showy, ovary superior, carpel > 1, fruit a pod or lomentum. > > Major genera: Acacia (1300 species), Mimosa (500), Inga (250), > Pithecellobium (170), Calliandra (150) and Albizia (150). > > Description: Trees (Acacia, Albizia), shrubs (Calliandra) or herbs (Mimosa > pudica), rarely climbers (Entada), or aquatic plants (Neptunia). Leaves > alternate, pinnately or palmately compound, sometimes simple, leaf base > (sometimes also the base of leaflets) pulvinate, petiole sometimes modified > into phyllode (Acacia auriculiformis), stipules present, sometimes spiny > and hollow inside sheltering ants (Acacia sphaerocephala), leaves of Mimosa > pudica sensitive to touch and showing sleeping movements. Inflorescence > racemose, in racemes (Adenanthera) or spikes (Prosopis), sometimes in > cymose heads (Mimosa, Acacia). Flowers small, bracteate (bracts usually > caducous), sessile, or short-pedicelled, bisexual, actinomorphic, > perigynous. Calyx with 5 sepals (4 in Mimosa), connate, odd sepal anterior, > usually valvate, teeth small. Corolla with 5 petals (4 in Mimosa), free or > united (Acacia, Albizia), valvate. Androecium with 4-many (4 in Mimosa, 10 > in Prosopis, numerous in Acacia and Albizia) stamens, free (Acacia, > Prosopis) or filaments connate (Albizia), anthers bithecous, dehiscence > longitudinal, filaments long and anthers usually exserted. Gynoecium with a > single carpel, unilocular with many ovules, placentation marginal, ovary > superior, style single, curved. Fruit a legume or lomentum (Mimosa, > Acacia); seeds 1-many, seed coat hard, endosperm minute or absent. > > Economic importance: The subfamily is of lesser economic importance. > Sensitive plant touch-me-not (Mimosa pudica) is grown as a curiosity. > Various species of Acacia (A. senegal, A. stenocarpa) yield gum arabic. > The pods and seeds of mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) are used as animal > feed, wood in cooking meats. Wood of Xylia is hard and used in ship > building. Calliandra, Dichrostachys are grown as ornamentals, > Pithecellobium as a useful hedge plant. > > > > -- > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > Retired Associate Professor > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. > Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 > http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ > > -- Dr Satish Phadke
