Florida’s Fabulous Fabaceae Family
By Becca Massip
This
post is one of a series from professor Nisse Goldberg's Plant Taxonomy
students at Jacksonville University. FNPS blogger Laurie Sheldon
assisted the students with their initial drafts, providing suggestions
for editing and content development.
The
Fabaceae family includes three subfamilies: Mimosoideae,
Caesalpinioideae, and Faboideae. Species within Faboideae are common
throughout Florida and are easy to detect by their butterfly-like flower
shape (Figure 1). The flower’s petals make it easy for pollinators like
bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, birds, bats, and beetles to take
nectar. The Fabaceae family is most famous for its fruit, which is a
legume, or pod. When the pod is ripe, it opens along the edges to
release the seeds.
Sources
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| Figure 1: The Pineland Butterfly Pea, Centrosema arenicola, is an endangered species found in Duval County, Florida Photo credit: Shirley Denton |
The
Fabaceae family is known as the Pea Family. It is the third largest
family amongst flowering plants, containing over 16,000 species. There
are 314 species in Florida alone, 168 of which are natives! This
family is found in temperate and tropical environments all over the
world however, most species prefer seasonally dry habitats. This family
is very unique because it can directly fix atmospheric nitrogen with the
help of root nodulating bacteria.
Characteristics
Leaves: simple, trifoliate, pinnate, or bipinnate
Fruit: legume
Flower: zygomorphic or actinomorphic
Characteristics
Leaves: simple, trifoliate, pinnate, or bipinnate
Fruit: legume
Flower: zygomorphic or actinomorphic
 |
| Figure 2: Peas are healthy for the human body. Photo credit: Bill Ebbeson |
The
Fabaceae family has many important uses. The seeds contain large
amounts of protein and oil, which are healthy for the human body (Figure 2). Some herbs are grown for their grain, while others are grown to be
consumed by farm animals. There are also many species in this family
that are used for decoration due to their bright colors and unique
shapes!
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| Figure 4: Sickle Bush, Dichrostachys cinerea, is found throughout Africa. Photo credit: Atamari |
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| Figure 3: Wattle, the floral emblem of Australia. Photo credit: Melburnian |
Fun Facts
The peanut is a legume that develops below the ground!
The biggest pods of the Central American legume, Entada gigas, can be up to 5 feet long!
Sources
http://tolweb.org/Fabaceae/21093
http://www.florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Results.aspx
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/legume1.htm
http://www.florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Results.aspx
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/legume1.htm
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