Sesbania punicea |
Sesbania |
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rattlebox, scarlet sesban |
riverhemp |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees, to 4 m. Stems glabrous in age; pith spongy, soon becoming obsolete. | Herbs, annual [perennial], shrubs, subshrubs, or trees, usually unarmed, rarely armed as prickles on stems. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | ascending, young growth pubescent or glabrous, hairs simple, long, close-pressed to spreading, pith solid, spongy, or partitioned. |
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Leaves | 4.5–30+ cm; stipules 0.4–0.5 cm, with inconspicuous inner fold 2/3 its length, inner fold and base often with stipitate, multicellular glands and long, simple hairs; pulvinus less than 1/2 as long as petiole; rachis ± appressed-pilose, with or without stipitate glands in canal, stipitate gland present at petiolule base; stipels narrow, gland tipped; leaflets 14–40, blades elliptic to oblong-obovate, base acute-obtuse, apex truncate to obtuse, surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent abaxially, usually glabrous adaxially. |
alternate, even-pinnate; stipules present, caducous, narrowly triangular; rachis canaliculate; petiolate, petiole base with stipitate, multicellular glands; stipels usually present, often persistent, glandular; leaflets 10–96+, opposite, folding closed at night, blade margins entire, surfaces glabrous or pubescent. |
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Inflorescences | 5–15+-flowered, racemes. |
1–18+-flowered, axillary, racemes or panicles, spreading; bracts and bracteoles present, early deciduous. |
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Peduncles | (1.1–)2.1–2.4(–3.3) cm. |
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Flowers | (1.8–)2–2.2(–2.5) cm; calyx ± zygomorphic, usually absent at fruit maturity, lobes 5, short and broad, sinuses shallow, rim of tube glabrous, stalked glands absent; corolla orange-grenadine-red; banner ovate, base truncate, apex emarginate, calluses as relatively small, acute teeth at claw base; wings without basal tooth; keel ± same color throughout, apex rounded-obtuse, curved upward, without basal tooth; stamens curved upward within keel; style curved upward with stamens; ovules 6 or 7(–10). |
papilionaceous; calyx zygomorphic or actinomorphic, campanulate, undulate-truncate, rim of tube glabrous or hairy, stalked glands sometimes present between lobes, lobes 5 (except sometimes 0 in S. grandiflora), 1/4–1/3 as long as tube; corolla white, pale yellow to orange or red, with or without purple spots on outer surface of banner, glabrous; banner usually with a pair of thickened calluses along claw, rarely calluses absent or reduced; stamens 10, diadelphous; anthers dorsifixed; pistil glabrous or style with spreading hairs; stigma capitate or slightly elongate, at same position as anthers. |
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Fruits | legumes, stipitate, bladdery-inflated or long-slender, terete, elliptic, or 4-angled, with or without wings, indehiscent or dehiscent, glabrous, with spongy mesocarp. |
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Legumes | red-brown, with or without horizontal mottling, 4-angled, square in cross section, ± straight, with pronounced, spreading wings, torulose or not, (5.2–)8.8–9.5(–10.7) × (0.7–)0.8(–9) cm, seed compartments slightly pronounced externally in age, beak long-pyramidal to triangular, (0.5–)0.9–1(–1.4) cm, tardily dehiscent; stipe (0.8–)1.1–1.2(–1.6) cm. |
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Seeds | (1–)6 or 7(–10), red-brown to gray, without mottling, globose to reniform-orbicular. |
1–40(–51), reniform, reniform-orbicular, globose, or columnar; hilum recessed. |
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x | = 6, 7, 12. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Sesbania punicea |
Sesbania |
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Phenology | Flowering early summer–fall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Wet areas, riparian, wetlands, coastal, disturbed sites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA; South America [Introduced in North America; introduced also in e Mexico, West Indies, Central America, Africa (South Africa)]
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North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands; Australia; tropical and subtropical regions nearly worldwide |
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Discussion | Sesbania punicea is used as an ornamental and is commonly sold under the name Scarlet Sesban. This native of central South America can survive short freezes and has escaped and become a noxious weed in some wetland locations. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species ca. 70 (7 in the flora). Darwinia Rafinesque 1817 (not Rudge 1815) and Emerus Kuntze 1891 (not Miller 1754) are illegitimate names that pertain here. Introduced species of Sesbania are commonly found in agricultural areas within tropical to temperate regions throughout the world. Sesbania is distinctive among legumes and combines morphologies that are atypical among papilionoids. The most unusual morphology of Sesbania is the even- or odd-pinnate leaf in which the strictly opposite leaflets fold forward during night-time (nyctinasty), similar to the mimosoid clade of Caesalpinioideae (for example, the sensitive Mimosa). Root nodules of Sesbania are variable (produced on roots and laterally on stems) and differ from other legume groups, which generally have uniform nodule morphology (for example, dalbergioids, M. Lavin et al. 2001). Finally, Sesbania fruits are distinctive from other legume groups. They have a well-developed, often spongy, mesocarp having four different variations: tardily dehiscent, linear, and many-seeded (for example, sect. Sesbania); tardily dehiscent, bladdery-inflated, and 2-seeded [sect. Glottidium (Desvaux) Lavin]; indehiscent, 4-winged, and several-seeded [sect. Daubentonia (de Candolle) Bentham & Hooker f.]; and indehiscent, torulose, and several-seeded [Mexican sect. Daubentoniopsis (Rydberg) Lavin]. These divergent fruit morphologies were used traditionally to separate the genus into these four sections, in addition to two others from Africa and the South Pacific. Species of Sesbania are widely cultivated for multiple agronomic and ecological uses, especially for soil improvement as a green manure (D. O. Evans 1990). Sesbania is used also for shade, as windbreaks, cover crops, ornamentals, fish poisons (isoflavones), fiber sources, construction materials, and food for humans and livestock and for heavy-metal bioremediation (J. B. Gillett 1963; R. Barlow et al. 2000; R. H. Qureshi et al. 2002; Yang B. et al. 2003). However, several species are considered agricultural pests and, in the case of S. punicea, may become noxious weeds in natural wetland and riparian areas. Unlike the related Loteae and Robinieae, most Sesbania species occupy either riparian or wetland habitats. Many Sesbania are well adapted to fluctuations in soil moisture and are tolerant of both drought and waterlogged conditions, forming floating roots and producing a surrounding layer of spongy aerenchyma to protect stems, roots, and root nodules. Specimens collected from chrome-ore piles in Maryland and Virginia in the late 1950s by C. F. Reed (1964) were identified as Sesbania exaltata. These collections are actually immature S. bispinosa (Jacquin) W. Wight, which has not been collected in the flora area since. Sesbania bispinosa most closely resembles S. herbacea and S. sericea from which it can easily be distinguished by floral characters. The keel apex of S. bispinosa is reduced and the rectangular blade has a long, downward curved tooth, the banner claw calluses are winglike ridges with rounded apices, and both the peduncle and the leaf rachis are armed with prickles, and the leaflet blades are glabrous abaxially. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Sesbania | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Piscidia punicea, Aeschynomene miniata, Daubentonia punicea, S. tripetii | Agati, Daubentonia, Daubentoniopsis, Glottidium, Monoplectra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Cavanilles) Bentham in C. F. P. von Martius et al.: Fl. Bras. 15(1): 43. (1859) | Adanson: Fam. Pl. 2: 327, 604. (1763) — (as Sesban), name and orthography conserved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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