Pithecellobium Mart., Hort. Reg. Monac. 188. 1829.
Trees or shrubs with spinescent stipules or axillary spines. Leaves bipinnate, petiole with a gland above at the junction of pinnae, leaflets 1-3 pairs, rarely more. Inflorescence head or spike often racemosely or paniculately arranged. Flowers generally sessile, bisexual, 5 or rarely 4 or 6-merous. Sepals usually 5, rarely 4 or 6, connate, campanulate, teeth small valvate. Petals 5, sometimes 4 or 6, connate, externally minutely hairy to glabrous. Stamens indefinite, monadelphous, much exserted. Ovary usually puberulous, sessile or shortly stipitate, ovules nume¬rous, style thin, stigma capitate. Pod spirally twisted, circinate or curved or rarely straight, compressed or convex, dehiscing from below splitting into 2 valves. Seeds compressed, ovate or rounded, embedded in a scanty pulp, often arillate, non endospermic.
A genus with about 100 species distributed in tropical and subtropical America.
