Family composed of 765 genera and about 19,580 species, making it one of the most diversified families among Angiosperms, and with almost subcosmopolitan Distribution. It is well represented in North Africa, with no less than 500 species, many of them trees or shrubs.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, 3 subfamilies have been recognised primarily based on their floral characteristics: Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae. However, current phylogeny studies carried out with molecular data do not support this classification, and support the separation of the family into 6 subfamilies (LPGW, 2017). In this new arrangement, the subfamilies Caesalpiniodeae and Papilionoideae are still recognised, but some genera of the ancient Mimosoideae subfamily have been placed under Caesalpiniodeae; the rest are now distributed between 4 new subfamilies: Cercidoideae, Detarioideae, Duparquetioideae and Dialioideae.<\/p>\n
Subfam. CERCIDEOIDEAE<\/strong> (Bronn) LPGW<\/p>\n Subfamily composed of 12 genera and about 335 species, mainly distributed across the tropics, although Cercis<\/em> reaches warm-temperate zones. In fact, C. siliquastrum<\/em> L. or the Judas tree belongs to this genus, and it is native of southern Europe, but often cultivated as an ornamental in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). One of its main features are its cordate leaves and its pink flowers arranged in racemes; both the racemes and the pods hang directly from the branches. Bauhinia<\/strong> L. is the only genus in the subfamily with native woody species in North Africa.<\/p>\n Subfam. CAESALPINIOIDEAE<\/strong> DC. (MIMOSOIDEAE DC.)<\/p>\n Subfamily composed of 148 genera and about 4,400 species, distributed mainly in warm regions, tropical and subtropical. In North Africa there is a fair representation of this group of tree and shrub species, to which we should add some introduced and cultivated species grown across the territory for their ornamental value, as fixers of soil, as source of wood, etc., and that in some situations and areas they may have been naturalised. Thus the genus Parkinsonia<\/em> L., which includes about 15 species distributed in America and Africa, but of which there are no native species in the territory, despite the fact that the well known Jerusalem thorn (P. aculeata<\/em> L.), native to tropical America, is grown as an ornamental frequently. It is a very attractive tree, both for its yellow flowers and, above all, for its leaves. These are bipinnate, with numerous small leaflets, arranged in 1-3 pairs of pinnae, almost 40 cm long, all starting from a short rachis that is transformed into a spine, as well as the stipules. Then the pinnae seem to be arranged palmately and, once the leaflets had fallen, the secondary, green and photosynthetic rachises persist. Similarly, the genus Gleditsia<\/em> L., composed of about 14 species native to America and Asia, is represented in the territory by the honey locust (G. triacanthos<\/em> L.), a native spiny tree of North America cultivated as an ornamental, and characterised by its large and sharp branched spines, and its pendant pods of remarkable size, at first green then turning purple-brown.<\/p>\n Of the genera previously included in Mimosoideae only 4 have native species in the territory: Vachellia<\/strong> Wight & Arn., Senegalia<\/strong> Raf., Faidherbia<\/strong> A.Chev., Prosopis<\/strong> L. and Dichrostachys<\/strong> (DC.) Wight & Arn., while other genera only have cultivated species including Leucaena<\/em> Benth., Paraserianthes<\/em> I.C.Nielsen, Albizia<\/em> Durazz. and Mimosa<\/em> L.<\/p>\n The genus Dichrostachys<\/strong> comprises some 14 mainly tropical species, with apetalous flowers arranged in spiciform inflorescences. D. cinerea<\/strong> (L.) Wight & Arn., (Mimosa cinerea <\/em>L., M. glomerata<\/em> Forssk.), of which various infraspecific taxa are recognised. It is a spiny shrub or small tree, with pantropical distribution, native in Africa typically S of parallel 20. In Sudan, following the Nile valley, it reaches southern Egypt. It has bipinnate leaves with stipular spines, and is unmistakable for its showy, spiciform and pendulous inflorescences, in which the basal flowers are male, with long pink stamens, and the rest hermaphrodite and yellow.<\/p>\n From the genus Leucaena<\/em>, composed of about 22 species native to the tropical regions of America, there are 2 cultivated species in the territory, both native to Mexico: Leucaena leucocephala <\/em>(Lam.) de Wit (M. leucocephala <\/em>Lam., Acacia leucocephala <\/em>(Lam.) Link), cultivated in Morocco and Egypt, and L. pulverulenta<\/em> (Schltdl.) Benth. (A. pulverulenta<\/em> Schltdl.) in Morocco. The former is of great importance as a forage tree, but it is extremely invasive, and therefore it has become naturalised in many parts of the world.<\/p>\n Paraserianthes<\/em> is a genus with a single species, P. lophantha<\/em> (Willd.) I.C.Nielsen (A. lophantha <\/em>Willd.), cultivated in Morocco and Algeria. It is a tree native to Australia, which has been introduced in many parts of the world. It is unmistakable for its spiciform inflorescences with flowers cream or yellowish in colour, with long stamens of the same colour, slightly fused at the base by the filaments.<\/p>\n The genus Albizia <\/em>composed of some 130 tropical species, is represented in the territory by 3 ornamental species. A. julibrissin<\/em> Durazz., of tropical Asia, is the most common (Morocco and Algeria), and unmistakable by the well developed whitish-pink stamens, which make extremely attractive flowers. Conversely, A. lebbeck<\/em> (L.) Benth. (Mimosa lebbeck<\/em> L.) and A. procera<\/em> (Roxb.) Benth. (M. procera<\/em> Roxb.), of tropical Asia, are only grown in Egypt and Libya, and differ from the former by having yellowish-white stamens.<\/p>\n The genus Mimosa<\/em> is composed of about 510 species worldwide, only M. pigra<\/em> L. is represented in the territory, a species native to South America (Paraguay and Argentina) and with a remarkable ability to invade, naturalised in Mauritania (in the Senegal River Valley) and cultivated in Egypt. It is a shrub of great size, with spiny stems and leaves, leaves nyctinastic, and flowers in glomeruliform pink capitula, which will turn into hirsute-villous pods, with septa between the seeds, and that will disarticulate into segments in maturity.<\/p>\n Finally, many of the native species of this subfamily [Caesalpinioideae (Mimosoideae)] are protected across different countries in North Africa. In Mali they are all included in its List of species that need authorization for commercial use (Decree 07-155\/P-RM of 2007).<\/p>\n Subfam. PAPILIONOIDEAE <\/strong>DC. (FABOIDEAE Rudd.)<\/p>\n This is undoubtedly the most diversified subfamily worldwide, with 503 genera and about 14,000 species, almost subcosmopolitan, with a strong presence across the temperate regions. It is well represented in North Africa, where tree and shrub species are of great importance in the thickets and forests of Mediterranean environments, and also across the semidesert areas.<\/p>\n Numerous native species of this subfamily are protected in some way in various countries of North Africa. In Mali they are all included in its List of species that need authorization for commercial use (Decree 07-155\/P-RM of 2007).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-10839","family","type-family","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n