Tylosema
Encyclopedia
The genus
Tylosema is in the plant
family
Fabaceae
.
There are four documented species within the genus Tylosema:
Tylosema, in the tribe Cercideae
, has been little investigated but heterostyly
, unknown elsewhere in the Fabaceae
, has been reported in all four species.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Tylosema is in the plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Fabaceae
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...
.
There are four documented species within the genus Tylosema:
- Tylosema esculentum (Burch.), Schreiber - Marama beanMarama beanTylosema esculentum, the Morama bean, is a long-lived perennial legume native to arid areas of southern Africa. Stems grow at least 3 metres, in a prostrate or trailing form, with forked tendrils that facilitate climbing...
- T. fassoglensis
- T. argentea (Chiov.) Brenan
- T. humifusa (Pichi-Serm. and Roti-Michel) Brenan
Tylosema, in the tribe Cercideae
Cercideae
Cercideae is a tribe in the pea family, Fabaceae. Well-known members include Cercis , including species widely cultivated as ornamental trees in the United States and Europe, Bauhinia, widely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical Asia, and Tylosema esculentum , a traditional food crop in...
, has been little investigated but heterostyly
Heterostyly
Heterostyly is a unique form of polymorphism and herkogamy in flowers. In a heterostylous species, two or three different morphological types of flowers, termed morphs, exist in the population. On each individual plant, all flowers share the same morph. The flower morphs differ in the lengths of...
, unknown elsewhere in the Fabaceae
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...
, has been reported in all four species.