Cladrastis

Cladrastis
Cladrastis kentukea
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Cladrastis
Raf.
Species

See text.

Cladrastis (yellowwood) is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, six native to eastern Asia, and one to southeastern North America.

Species of Cladrastis are small to medium-sized deciduous trees typically growing 10–20 m tall, exceptionally to 27 m tall. The leaves are compound pinnate, with 5–17 alternately arranged leaflets. The flowers are fragrant, white or pink, produced in racemes or panicles 15–40 cm long. The fruit is a pod 3–8 cm long, containing one to six seeds.

Cladrastis is related to the genus Maackia, from which it differs in having the buds concealed in the leaf base, and in the leaflets being arranged alternately on the leaf rachis, not in opposite pairs. The genus name derives from the Greek klados, branch, and thraustos, fragile, referring to the brittle nature of the twigs. The combination of Cladrastis, Pickeringia and Styphnolobium form a monophyletic clade known as the Cladrastis clade; as the other two originated from within Cladrastis, Cladrastis is paraphyletic.[1][2][3]

Species

Cladrastis comprises the following species:[4][5]

References

  1. Cardoso D, Pennington RT, de Queiroz LP, Boatwright JS, Van Wyk B-E, Wojciechowski MF, Lavin M. (2013). "Reconstructing the deep-branching relationships of the papilionoid legumes". S Afr J Bot 89: 58–75. doi:10.1016/j.sajb.2013.05.001.
  2. Cardoso D, de Queiroz LP, Pennington RT, de Lima HC, Fonty É, Wojciechowski MF, Lavin M. (2012). "Revisiting the phylogeny of papilionoid legumes: new insights from comprehensively sampled early-branching lineages". Am J Bot 99 (12): 1991–2013. doi:10.3732/ajb.1200380.
  3. Wojciechowski MF. (2013). "The origin and phylogenetic relationships of the Californian chaparral ‘paleoendemic’ Pickeringia (Leguminosae)". Syst Bot 38 (1): 132–142. doi:10.1600/036364413X662024.
  4. "ILDIS LegumeWeb entry for Cladrastis". International Legume Database & Information Service. Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  5. USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. "GRIN species records of Cladrastis". Germplasm Resources Information Network—(GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  6. Some sources treat Cladrastis delavayi as a synonym of Cladrastis sinensis.

Further Reading

Wikispecies has information related to: Cladrastis
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cladrastis.