Albizia Durazz. (1772), in the family Leguminosae subfamily Mimosoideae, contains 100–150 species in Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas. Description Trees to 40m, or shrubs, without spines. The leaves are alternate, evergreen or deciduous, 2-pinnate, with small leaflets. The flowers are in umbel-like or elongated bunches or in spikes, fluffy with very long stamens, sometimes with 1 or 2 flowers in each head larger than the rest. Sepals 5, joined at the base to form a toothed cup; petals 5, joined to make a bell-shaped corolla. Stamens 19–50, joined at the base to form a tube, longer than the petals. Ovary superior, with 1 carpel containing several ovules; style thread-like, with a minute stigma. Pollination is by insects. The fruits are legumes, thin and papery or leathery when ripe, with flattened seeds. Key Recognition Features The fluffy flowerheads are typical of the subfamily Mimosoideae. The stamens fused at the base and the large, ferny leaves are typical of Albizia. Evolution and Relationships Close to Acacia but much less diverse, and even closer to Calliandra Benth., in which the flowers in the head are all equal and the pods split from the base. Ecology and Geography In rainforest and open woods, mainly in the tropics and subtropics. Comment The name commemorates Fillipo degli Albizzi, an Italian naturalist. The most commonly cultivated temperate species is A. julibrissin (Willd.) Durazz., native of Asia eastwards from Iran, and of Ethiopia. It forms a flat-topped tree with pink flowers, and is hardy once it is woody. Albizia lophantha (Willd.) Benth. from Western Australia is now put in the genus Paraserianthes L. Murray; it has long spikes of creamy-white flowers, produced within a year from seed. It survives a few degrees of frost. |
