Bussea Harms, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 33: 159. 1902.

Bruneau, Anne, de Queiroz, Luciano Paganucci, Ringelberg, Jens J., Borges, Leonardo M., Bortoluzzi, Roseli Lopes da Costa, Brown, Gillian K., Cardoso, Domingos B. O. S., Clark, Ruth P., Conceicao, Adilva de Souza, Cota, Matheus Martins Teixeira, Demeulenaere, Else, de Stefano, Rodrigo Duno, Ebinger, John E., Ferm, Julia, Fonseca-Cortes, Andres, Gagnon, Edeline, Grether, Rosaura, Guerra, Ethiene, Haston, Elspeth, Herendeen, Patrick S., Hernandez, Hector M., Hopkins, Helen C. F., Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau, Hughes, Colin E., Ickert-Bond, Stefanie M., Iganci, Joao, Koenen, Erik J. M., Lewis, Gwilym P., de Lima, Haroldo Cavalcante, de Lima, Alexandre Gibau, Luckow, Melissa, Marazzi, Brigitte, Maslin, Bruce R., Morales, Matias, Morim, Marli Pires, Murphy, Daniel J., O'Donnell, Shawn A., Oliveira, Filipe Gomes, Oliveira, Ana Carla da Silva, Rando, Juliana Gastaldello, Ribeiro, Petala Gomes, Ribeiro, Carolina Lima, Santos, Felipe da Silva, Seigler, David S., da Silva, Guilherme Sousa, Simon, Marcelo F., Soares, Marcos Vinicius Batista & Terra, Vanessa, 2024, Advances in Legume Systematics 14. Classification of Caesalpinioideae. Part 2: Higher-level classification, PhytoKeys 240, pp. 1-552 : 1

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.240.101716
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scientific name	Bussea Harms, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 33: 159. 1902.
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Treatment

Bussea Harms, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 33: 159. 1902. View in CoL

Figs 68 View Figure 68 , 70 View Figure 70 , 71 View Figure 71

Type.

Bussea massaiensis (Taub.) Harms [≡ Peltophorum massaiense Taub.]

Description.

Unarmed shrubs or more usually treelets or trees, (2) 6-25 m, with an erect branching habit, the trunk 70-100 cm in diameter, bark smooth, pale whitish-grey, young shoots with a brown or rusty indumentum. Stipules small, subulate, caducous. Leaves bipinnate, petiolar and rachis glands absent, (1) 8-14 pairs of pinnae and (5) 8-11 (26) pairs of opposite leaflets, these rhombic and unequal-sided, the base truncate, the midvein oblique, dark green and glossy above. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal in the upper leaf axils, paniculate or racemose, often combined into a compound terminal inflorescence, the axes minutely velvety brown, pedicels not jointed, bracts mostly caducous (persistent in B. massaiensis subsp. rhodesica ). Flowers bisexual, weakly zygomorphic; hypanthium shallowly campanulate; sepals 5, imbricate in bud, becoming reflexed, the 3 inner sepals with membranous erose hyaline margins; petals 5, the lateral pairs sub-equal, the upper petal reduced, all petals crinkled, the margins erose, tapering at the base to a short robust claw, bright yellow (Fig. 68C View Figure 68 ); stamens 10, free, porrect and clustered around the gynoecium, shorter than petals, anthers dorsifixed, glabrous (hairs present in B. occidentalis ); pollen in oblate tricolporate monads with coarsely reticulate surface ornamentation with sinuous, slightly convoluted muri; ovary subsessile, ovoid, 2-4 ovules, style short and flared to a large peltate capitate stigma. Fruits erect, narrow oblong-obovate, compressed with greatly thickened margins, valves woody, with a longitudinal furrow, densely rusty-brown pubescent, elastically dehiscent from the apex, the valves recurving, 1-3-seeded (Fig. 70E, F View Figure 70 ). Seeds compressed, oblong discoid.

Chromosome number.

2 n = 22 ( Goldblatt 1981b).

Included species and geographic distribution.

Seven species, five from Africa (one endemic to Mozambique, one in West Africa, two in Tanzania and one in Angola - Congo), plus two species endemic to western and northern Madagascar (Fig. 71 View Figure 71 ).

Ecology.

Seasonally dry tropical forest, thickets and deciduous bushland, often on sandy soils, moist semi-deciduous forest and rainforest.

Etymology.

Named in honour of Walter Carl Otto Busse (1865-1933), German botanist and ecologist who collected material of the type species in East Africa in 1901.

Human uses.

The wood is hard and used for construction and firewood.

Notes.

Robustly supported as sister to Peltophorum (Fig. 66 View Figure 66 ) ( Haston et al. 2005; Ringelberg et al. 2022), the two genera sharing distinctive peltate stigmas.

Taxonomic references.

Brenan (1967); Du Puy and Rabevohitra (2002) both with illustrations; see also Intkey for an illustration.