野决明族 ye jue ming zu

Authors: Zhi Wei & J. Michael Lock

Shrubs or perennial herbs, latter often with a woody rootstock. Leaves usually 3-foliolate, rarely 1-foliolate; stipulate; stipels absent. Flowers in terminal racemes, strongly papilionaceous. Calyx imbricate in bud. Petals 5. Stamens (9 or)10, free (occasionally 2 or 3 fused to near apex); anthers all similar. Ovary 1- to many ovuled; upper part of style usually glabrous and upturned. Legumes elongated, flattened or globose. Seeds oblong-reniform, ellipsoid to discoid; hilum small.

Six genera and 40-50 species: scattered throughout temperate areas of North America, the Mediterranean basin, and C and NE Asia; three gen­era and 15 species (five endemic) in China.

This tribe, with the exception of the North American Pickeringia, appears to be monophyletic, and it lies closest to Euchresteae and to a Podalyrieae-Crotalarieae-Genisteae clade (see discussion in Lewis et al., Legumes World, 263. 2005).

Lower Taxa

• Ammopiptanthus S. H. Cheng
• Piptanthus Sweet
• Thermopsis R. Brown