Entada gigas (L.) Fawc. & Rendle, Fl. Jamaica 4: 124. 1920.

O'Donnell, Shawn A., Ringelberg, Jens J. & Lewis, Gwilym P., 2022, Re-circumscription of the mimosoid genus Entada including new combinations for all species of the phylogenetically nested Elephantorrhiza (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade), PhytoKeys 205, pp. 99-145 : 99

Entada gigas (L.) Fawc. & Rendle, Fl. Jamaica 4: 124. 1920.

= Entada gigalobium DC., Mém. Légum.: 421. 1826.

= Entada scandens (L.) Benth. subsp. planoseminata De Wild., Pl. Bequaert. 3: 85. 1925.

= Entada scandens (L.) Benth. subsp. umbonata De Wild., Pl. Bequaert. 3: 86. 1925.

= Entada planoseminata (De Wild.) G.C.C. Gilbert & Boutique, Fl. Congo Belge 3: 221. 1952.

= Entada umbonata (De Wild.) G.C.C. Gilbert & Boutique, Fl. Congo Belge 3: 222. 1952.

Type.

SWEDEN (cultivated). Uppsala Botanic Garden, Herb. Linn. No. 1228.11 (neotype: LINN, designated by Panigrahi in Taxon 34: 714. 1985) .

Basionym.

Mimosa gigas L., Fl. Jamaic. (Linnaeus) 22. 1759.

Description.

Liana to 45 m long (Fig. 13A ). Leaves: rachis 5.9-7.5 cm long, terminating in a bifurcating tendril; pinnae (1-)2 pairs per leaf, with (3-)4(-5) pairs of leaflets; leaflets oblong to elliptic, often asymmetric, apex obtuse or rounded, emarginate, both surfaces of lamina essentially glabrous, except beneath near the base and the mid-rib puberulous above and sometimes below (Fig. 13A, B ). Inflorescence: a spiciform raceme, 8-25 cm long, solitary, supra-axillary (3-5 mm above the axil) with tufted glands between the axil and point of insertion of the rachis, ± pubescent, peduncle 1.5-6 cm long (Fig. 13C ). Flowers: creamy white to greenish-yellow, pedicels 1-1.5 mm long; calyx 1-1.25 mm long, glabrous to pubescent; petals 2.5-3 mm long; stamen filaments 3.5-6 mm long (Fig. 13E ). Fruit: a gigantic craspedium, 40-120 × 7.5-12 cm, less woody than in the morphologically similar E. rheedei , twisted into a lax spiral, with transverse septa between seeds dividing the fruit into one-seeded segments which, upon ripening, fall from the persistent replum; epicarp falling away to expose an inflexible chartaceous endocarp; 10-12-seeded (Figs 2K , 13E ). Seeds: circular to slightly cordate, laterally compressed, 4-5.5 cm in diameter, hard; cotyledons separated by an intervening air space, enabling flotation (Fig. 2O ).

Distribution.

Central and west Africa; Central America, Caribbean and Colombia.

Habitat and ecology.

Riparian forests; Brenan (1959) noted two specimens collected from Uganda (Jarrett 400; Brown 328) at 1310 m alt. and 1183 m alt., respectively. Seeds dispersed widely by sea currents.

Figures

Figure 2. Genus-wide variation in morphological characters. A-D habit A large woody liana, E. rheedei (photo: B Wursten, Hyde et al. (2021)) B small tree, E. abyssinica (photo: G Baumann, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) C shrub, E. burkei (photo: M Schmidt, Dressler et al. (2014 a, b )) D geoxylic suffrutex, E. dolichorrhachis (photo: M Bingham, Bingham et al. (2021)) E, F leaves E bipinnate leaf with few pinnae, few large leaflets and ending in a bifurcating tendril, E. rheedei (photo: AP Balan, Balan and Predeep (2021)) F bipinnate leaf with many pinnae, many small leaflets and no tendril, E. rangei (photo: A Dreyer, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) G-I inflorescences G terminal panicle of up-turned spikes, E. polyphylla (photo: R Vasquez Martinez, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0, MBG (2021)) H axillary fascicles of spiciform racemes, E. goetzei (photo: G Baumann, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) I short spiciform raceme of dark red flowers, E. wahlbergii (photo: R Mangelsdorff, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) J-M fruits J immature, weakly falcate, segmented craspedium up to 2 m long, E. rheedei (photo: photographer unknown, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), 2000) K immature, segmented, laxly spiralled craspedium up to 120 cm long, E. gigas (photo: R Aguilar CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Aguilar (2021)) L ripe segmented craspedia breaking up into one-seeded segments with exfoliating epicarp, E. africana (photo: B Eichhorn, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) M ripe unsegmented craspedium, the entire valve breaking away from the persistent replum, E. burkei (photo: M Kriek CC BY-SA 4.0, Ueda (2021) observation 85675968) N, O seeds N one-seeded endocarp segment and small ovoid, flattened seed with elliptic pleurogram, E. africana (photo: B Eichhorn, Dressler et al. (2014 a)) O ripe one-seeded fruit segments with large circular, laterally compressed seeds lacking a pleurogram, E. gigas (photo: J Stevens, Dressler et al. (2014 a)). Scale bars: 1 cm (N, O).

Figure 13. Entada gigas habit, vegetative and reproductive structure. A vegetative shoot of liana, Gabon (photo: E Bidault CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, MBG (2021)) B abaxial view of a leaf, Costa Rica (photo: D Janzen CC BY-ND-SA 3.0, iBOL (2016) record MHPAD 2192 - 10) C axillary spiciform racemes, Gabon (photo: E Bidault CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, MBG (2021)) D open, pedicellate flowers, Gabon (photo: E Bidault CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, MBG (2021)) E large, mature fruit twisted into a lax spiral, Democratic Republic of Congo (photo: W McCleland, Dressler et al. (2014 a)).