瓜儿豆属 gua er dou shu
Sun Hang (孙航); Brian Schrire
Cordaea Sprengel.
Herbs annual, with appressed T-shaped hairs. Stipules subulate or linear; leaf blade imparipinnate, ternate, or simple; leaflets abaxially or on both surfaces with appressed white T-shaped hairs, margin entire, serrate, or parted. Racemes axillary, few flowered [is 30 few?? see below]; peduncle present or absent. Calyx 5-lobed; lower calyx tooth longest. Corolla yellowish, yellow, or pink; standard nearly broadly obovate; keel not curled, ± bursiform, spur short or absent. Stamens 10, monadelphous; filaments connate into a tube, not squamate at base, with rigid point at tip of anther. Ovary sessile. Legume nearly 4-angled, flattened, tapered to beak at apex. Seeds cubiform or nearly so, surface slightly tubercular bulged.
Four species: tropical Africa; one species (introduced) in China.
瓜儿豆 gua er dou
Psoralea tetragonoloba Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 2: 501; Mant. Pl. 1: 104. 1767; Cyamopsis psoraloides Candolle, nom. illeg. superfl.
Herbs 0.6–3 m tall. Stems erect, branched, woody at base, almost glabrous, branches conspicuously 4-angled. Stipules linear, 5–8 mm; peiole long [was “stipitate long”–or does this mean petiolules are long??]; leaf blade ternate; leaflets ovate or subrhombic, 3–7 × 1.5–4 cm, abaxially with appressed grayish T-shaped hairs, adaxially sparsely appressed hairy or almost glabrous, base cuneate or broadly so, margin serrate, apex acuminate. Racemes 4–6 cm, 6–30-flowered; peduncle short. Calyx ca. 3 mm; calyx teeth triangular, subequal to calyx tube, lower calyx tooth longer than calyx tube, “outer with hairs” [meaning whole calyx abaxially hairy??]. Corolla yellow, 6–7 mm; standard broadly ovate [cf. broadly obovate in genus descr.], claw [“petal stalk”] short, apex obtuse; keel ± scrotiform at margin, spur absent. Ovary glabrous. Legume nearly linear, 4–7 cm × 4–8 mm, 6–12-seeded, margin conspicuously crested. Seeds black or grayish, nearly cubiform, surface scabrous, with a pellicular layer between seeds [belongs under legume??].
Cultivated. S Yunnan (Xishuangbanna) [native to tropical Africa; cultivated in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam].