Characteristics and economic importance of family Papilionaceae (Leguminosae)

1. Diagnostic features :

  • Mostly herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, often climbing.
  • Leaves alternate, stipulate, simple, or imparipinnately compound.
  • Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, corolla papilionaceous, aestivation descending- imbricate, posterior petals outermost, stamens 10 or 9, monadelphous or diadelphous, rarely free.
  • Gynoecium monocarpellary, unilocular with marginal placentation.
  • Fruit a legume or pod. 

2. Distribution :

  • Includes about 482 genera and nearly 7200 species.
  • Worldwide in distribution.
  • Grow abundantly in tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions, of both the northern and southern hemispheres.
  • Found in plains as well as in hilly regions reaching up to 8000 feet.

3. Vegetative characters:

a) Habit:

  • Show a wide range of variation in their habit.
  • Usually herbs (Vicia, Pisum), shrubs (Cajanus, Ulex) or trees (Butea, Dalbergia).
  • Climbers are also most common (Pisum, Lathyrus).

b) Roots:

  • Branched tap root system.
  • Root nodules containing nitrogen fixing bacteria.

c) Stem:

  • Aerial, usually erect.
  • sometimes climbing or twiners.
  • branched, cylindrical or angular.
  • herbaceous or woody.
  • solid or fistular.

d) Leaf 

  • Cauline and ramal, alternate rarely opposite or whorled.
  • Stipulate or exstipulate, stipules leaf like (Pisum) simple (Cajanus) or pinnately (Pisum) or palmately (Crotalaria) compound.
  • Terminal leaflet modifies into a tendril in Lathyrus, Pisum, Vicia.
  • Venation unicostate (Pisum) or multicostate (Crotalaria) reticulate.

4. Floral characters.

a)Inflorescence:

  • racemose usually a raceme (Pisum, Lathyrus).
  • sometimes spikes (Uraria), panicles (Dalbergia), solitary axillary (Cicer) or terminal.

b) Flower:

  • pedicellate, bracteates. Sometimes bracteolate (Sesbania).
  • complete, hermaphrodite, zygomorphic.
  • pentamerous, hypogynous or perigynous.

Characteristics and economic importance of family Papilionaceae  (Leguminosae) - Overall Science

Image source: quora

 

c) Calyx:

  • sepals-5, gamosepalous.
  • persistent, valvate or imbricate.
  • odd sepal anterior.

d) Corolla:

  • petals-5, very unequal and papilionaceous (i.e. one posterior petal is very large and called standard, 2 lateral wings and two innermost, smallest united petals known as keel).
  • aestivation vexillary or descending imbricate.

e) Androecium:

  • stamens-10, diadelphous usually 9+1 (Pisum) or sometimes 5+5 (Smithia).
  • Only 9 monadelphous stamens are present in Dalbergia.
  • anthers usually two-celled, introse, basi or dorsi fixed, dehiscing by longitudinal slits.
  • In Sophora all the stamens are free.

f) Gynoecium:

  • carpel one, ovary superior, unilocular, with many ovules in two rows.
  • placentation marginal.
  • style and stigma simple.

g) Fruit:

  • usually a legume or,
  • sometimes indehiscent (Melilotus).

h) Seeds:

  • usually non-endospermic.
  • Embryo is large and curved.

i) General floral formula with floral diagram:

 

5. Economic importance

i) Pulses and vegetables:

  • Almost all pulses belong to this family.
  • They are sources of protein.
  • Examples: Cajanus cajan (arhar- pigeon pea), Cicer arietinum (gram or chana), Pisum sattivum (matar or pea), Dolichos lablab (semi or bean), Glycine max (soyabean or bhattamas), Phaseolus aureus ( mung).

ii) Timber:

  • Dalbergia sissoo, Butea and Pterocarpus provide excellent wood for various building purposes, furnitures and fuel.

iii) Oil:

  • Oil obtained from the seeds of the plants are used for various purposes.
  • Some are edible (Arachis hypogea– ground nut, Glycine max– bhattmas), some are used for preparing vegetable ghee (soyabean oil), some (ground nut oil) for preparing soap and cosmetics.
  • Oil cake is used as fodder.

iv) Green manuring:

  • Crotalaria junceae, Medicago sativa, Trifolium pratense, Sesbania aculenta (Dhaicha), etc are used to increase the nitrogen content of the soil.

v)Dyes:

  • Yellow dye obtained from Butea monosperma.
  • Blue dye obtained from the flowers and seeds of Clitoria ternatea.

vi) Ornamentals:

  • Pisum sativum, Lathyrus, Butea, Clitoria, Clianthus dampieri (Glory pea) are used as ornamental plants.

vii) Fibres:

  • Crotalaria, Sesbania , etc are used as the source of fibres which is used for making cords, bags and ropes.

viii) Medicines:

  • Glycyrrhiza glabra, Clitoria and Teramnus labialis are used as medicines for various diseased condition.

References: 

i) https://onlinesciencenotes.com/characteristics-economic-importance-family-leguminosae/

ii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabaceae

Characteristics and economic importance of family Papilionaceae (Leguminosae)