Volume 4 > Part 2 > Year 1985 > Page 205 > Leguminosae-Mimosoideae > Pithecellobium

1. Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth.wfo-0000178252

J. Bot. 3: 213. 1844; Trans. Linn. Soc. 30: 572. 1875; Bak in Fl. Br. Ind. 2: 302. 1878; Prain, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 66 (2): 263. 1897; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 1: 660. 1922; Craib in Fl. Siam. Eu. 1: 558. 1928; Kosterm., Bull. Organ. Nhtuurw. Onderz. Indonesië 20: 8. 1954; Whitmore, Tree Fl. Mal. 1: 285. 1972; Nielsen, Adansonia, ser. 2, 19: 34. 1979; in Fl. C.L.V. 19: 108. Pl. 19, 14–18. 1981.— Mimosa dulcis Roxb., Pl. Corom. 1 : 67, t. 99. 1798; Fl. Ind. ed. 2.2: 556. 1832.— Inga dulcis (Roxb.) Willd., Sp. Pl. 4: 1005. 1806. Fig. 51: 14–18.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Tree or shrub up to ca 10 m high; branchlets terete, faintly puberulous, glabrescent. Stipular thorns ca 0.4–1 cm. Leaves: rachis ca 1–2.5 cm long; gland between the junctions of the pinnae, ca 0.25 mm diam, circular, substipitate with slightly raised margins; pinnae 1 pair, up to ca 0.75 cm, armed with terminal, small, 1–2 mm, stipellate thorns; gland similar to the petiolar gland between the junctions of the leaflets; leaflets 1 pair, opposite, sessile, 1.5–3.5 by 1–2 cm, asymmetrically ovate; base obtuse, asymmetrical; apex obtuse, emargiate; chartaceous; both surfaces glabrous. Calyx ca 1.5 mm, cup-shaped, tomentose, teeth 0.3–0.4 mm, triangular. Corolla ca 3.5 mm, funnel-shaped, tomentose; lobes 1 mm, ovate, acute. Staminal tube as long as the corolla-tube. Ovary 2–3 mm, puberulous; stipe 1 mm. Pod forming a circle to semicircle, ca 4–5 cm diam, 1 cm broad, compressed, coriaceous, dark brown, glabrous, with distinct marks over the seeds, dehiscing along both sutures; inside reddish. Seeds with the funicle gradually thickening into a fleshy aril, covering the lower half, ca 9 by 7 mm, asymmetrically obovate, flat, ca 2 mm thick, dark; pleurogram up to ca 7.5 by 3 mm.

Thailand : Introduced, cultivated; spontaneous in old clearings.

Distribution : Naturalized all over the Tropics (India – type), originally introduced from C America.

Vernacular : Ma kham khong (มะขามข้อง)(Northern); ma kham thet (มะขามเทศ)(Central).

CommonName : Madras Thorn, Manila Tamarind.

Uses: The sweet, white aril around the seeds is edible.