Entada africana Guill. & Perr., Fl. Seneg. Tent.: 233. 1832.

= Entada ubanguiensis De Wild., Pl. Bequaert. 3: 88. 1925.

= Entada sudanica Schweinf., Reliq. Kotschy.: 8. 1968.

Types

(fide Brenan 1959: 12). SENEGAL. Tiélimane, Cayor, Leprieur (syntype: G; photo: K); GAMBIA. Albreda, G.S. Perrottet 290 (isosyntypes: BM [BM000842201], G; photo: K).

Description.

Shrub to small tree, 1.2-10 m tall, bark very rough (Fig. 7A). Leaves: variable, rachis 5.3-30 cm long, tendrils absent; pinnae 2-10 pairs per leaf, each pinna 7.1-17 cm long, with 10-24 pairs of leaflets; leaflets 1-3.1 × 0.32-0.85 cm, linear-oblong to elliptic- or obovate-oblong, apex rounded, base obtuse to oblique, mid-rib sub-central above base, lamina glabrous to slightly puberulous. Inflorescence: a 6.5-15 cm long, spiciform raceme, either solitary or in groups of up to 4 inserted in a supra-axillary position, peduncle and rachis usually glabrous, rarely pubescent (Fig. 7B). Flowers: yellow to white, sweetly scented, pedicels 1(-1.5) mm long; calyx 0.75-1.25 mm, shallowly toothed, glabrous; petals 1.5-4 × 0.6-1 mm (Fig. 7C). Fruit: a torulose, laterally compressed, almost straight craspedium, 38 × 5-7.3 cm; with transverse septa between seeds dividing the fruit into one-seeded segments which, upon ripening, fall from the persistent replum; segments distinctly umbonate over seeds (Figs 2L, 7D). Seeds: ovoid, 1.2 × 0.9-1 cm (Fig. 2N).

Distribution.

Throughout tropical sub-Saharan Africa, north of the equator.

Habitat and ecology.

Savannah grasslands and woodland, often in association with Terminalia L., Combretum Loefl., Philenoptera laxiflora (Guill. & Perr.) Roberty and Pterocarpus lucens Lepr. ex Guill. & Perr. (Lungu 1995, p. 35).