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Fabaceae subfamilies

Subfamily Caesalpinioideae

Pettigrew and Watson (1977) and Watson (1981)Watson (1981):
Watson L. 1981. An automated system of generic descriptions for Caesalpinioideae, and its application to classification and keymaking. In R.M. Polhill and P.H. Raven, eds., Advances in Legume Systematics, v. 2., pt. 1, pp. 65&-80. Internatl. Legume Conf. Proc. 1978. Kew, England. Minis. Agr., Fisheries and Food, Richmond, England. have noted that there are two main groups within the Caesalpinioideae: (1) Caesalpinieae, Cassieae, and Cercideae, and (2) Amherstieae and Detarieae. Watson observed that these two groups have "no single fully recorded character which makes even a fair approximation to define them as supertribes, and although the biased distributions of numerous characters amply testify to their taxonomic worth, these overlap inconsistently, and correlations remain very imperfect." Polhill and Vidal (1981)Polhill and Vidal (1981):
Polhill RM and Vidal JE. 1981. Tribe 1. Caesalpinieae. In R.M. Polhill and P.H. Raven, eds., Advances in Legume Systematics, v. 2, pt. 1, pp. 81&-95. Internatl. Legume Conf., Proc. 1978, Kew, England. Minis. Agr., Fisheries and Food, Richmond, England. noted that the tribe Caesalpinieae is the basis of the entire family. The tribe "is defined in essence by negative features and a number of genera are transitional to other major groups in one respect or another. ..."

Cowan (1981a), in an overview of the subfamily, noted that it comprised 5 tribes, 152 genera, and 1,926 species, unevenly distributed throughout tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones. Most genera are found in tropical Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. Only four genera have 100 or more species: Caesalpinia with 100 spp., Senna with ca. 240 spp., Chamaecrista with ca. 250 spp., and Bauhinia with ca. 250 spp. One hundred and four of the caesalpinioid genera recognized in Polhill and Raven (1981)Polhill and Raven (1981):
Polhill RM and Raven PH, eds. 1981. Advances in Legume Systematics, v. 2, pt. 1, pp. 1–464. Int. Legume Conf., Proc. 1978, Kew, England Minis. Agric., Fisheries and Food, Richmond, England. have 10 species or fewer: Forty-four of the genera, mostly African, are monotypic.

Since Cowan (1981a), a number of changes have been made in Caesalpinioideae (Polhill, 1994aPolhill, 1994a:
Polhill RM. 1994a. Classification of the Leguminosae. pp. xxx&-xlviii. In F.A. Bisby, J. Buckingham, and J.B. Harborne, eds., Phytochemical Dictionary of the Leguminosae. Chapman & Hall, London, England., 1994b). One of the principal changes was the fusion of tribes Amherstieae and Detarieae, and a major advancement was the monographing of the Neotropical members of the genera Cassia, Chamaecrista, and Senna by Irwin and Barneby (1978, 1982). The subfamily now has 4 tribes, 156 genera, and approximately 1,915 species. Only four genera have 100 species or more: Caesalpinia with more than 100 spp., Senna with ca. 265 spp., Chamaecrista with ca. 260 spp., and Bauhinia with ca. 200 spp. One hundred and twenty two genera have ten species or fewer, and 61 genera are monotypic, one-third in the New World and two-thirds in the Old World.

At the Fourth International Legume Conference, 2–6 July 2001, Canberra, Australia, cladistic analyses employing molecular and morphological data were presented (Bruneau et al., 2001). They found that Cercideae and Detarieae, in the broad sense including Amherstieae, are monophyletic and that Caesalpiniaea and Cassieae are polyphyletic. The subfamily Mimosoideae was in a clade that included all nodulating Caesalpiniodeae, except Chamaecrista. The subfamilies Mimosoideae and Faboideae were derived from a clade containing most Caesalpinieae and Cassieae genera. They concluded that the traditional classification system will be significantly modified.

Neither mature fruit or seed material nor published data were available for the following genus: 
Androcalymma J.D. Dwyer (1.2.11, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Cassieae)

The following six genera were represented by fruits or valves: 
Augouardia F. Pellegrin (1.4.32, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)
Brachycylix (H.A.T. Harms) R.S. Cowan (1.4.52, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)
Lebruniodendron J.J.G. Léonard (1.4.03, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)
Leucostegane D. Prain (1.4.17, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)
Neochevalierodendron J.J.G. Léonard (1.4.13, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)
Paloveopsis R.S. Cowan (1.4.51, subfamily Caesalpinioideae, tribe Detarieae)

For subfamily Caesalpinioideae, unpublished data (pers. commun.) were supplied by reviewers of tribes: Caesalpinieae, R.S. Cowan and G.P. Lewis; Cassieae, Rupert C. Barneby; Cercideae, Richard P. Wunderlin; and Detarieae, R.S. Cowan and R.M. Polhill.

Fabaceae subfamilies