78 FABACEAE 
than terminals. Inflorescence usually 1-flowered; 
peduncles 2-9 mm long; bracts caducous c. 1 mm 
long. Pedicels 5-8 mm long; bracteoles caducous, 
minute, obscure. Calyx 3-6 mm long; lobes 
subequal, 0.5-1 times as long as tube, upper lobe 
minutely bifid, lower longer and narrower. Standard 
c. 9 mm long, 11-12 mm wide. Pod straight, 28-50 
mm long, 7-9 mm wide. Seeds 5-8, green with dark 
Dunbaria 
purple mottles to dark brown, 3.5-5 mm long, 
3-3.5 mm wide. Flowering: Jan - Mar; fruiting: Feb - 
May. Fig. 23 
Found in tropical Australia and New Guinea, in 
Eucalypt savanna on well drained soils. Relatively 
common in the DR. Aboriginal people eat the tuber 
after it has been cooked on hot coals (Wightman, 
1993). 
ERIOSEMA (DC.) G.Don 
A genus of c. 130 species occurring throughout the tropics, most commonly in Africa and America. One 
species occurs in Australia. 
E. chinense Vogel 
An erect herb to 0.8 m tall with annual aerial parts 
and perennial rootstock consisting of a globular to 
ellipsoid tuber to 30 mm diam. Stems and leaf 
undersurfaces densely hairy with adpressed to patent 
ferruginous, long simple hairs and white short 
glandular based hairs; the upper surface of the leaf 
only with sparse long hairs. Yellow resinous deposits 
present on leaf undersurface, calyx and corolla. 
Stipules persistent, brown, 3-5 mm long, striate, 
attenuate. Leaves 1-foliolate but appear simple; stipels 
absent; rachis 1-1.5 mm long; blades discolorous, 
narrowly lanceolate to linear, 35-100 mm long, 1-9 
mm wide, L/W 9-50, base shallowly cordate, margins 
inrolled, apex acute. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, 
often with 2 peduncles of differing ages, 2-3-flowered; 
peduncles to 10 mm long; bracts caducous, 2-4 mm 
long, similar to stipules. Pedicels c. 1 mm long; 
bracteoles absent. Calyx 3-3.5 mm long; 5-lobed, 
lobes 0.5-1.3 times as long as tube. Corolla yellow; 
standard shortly clawed, reflexed, obovate to broadly 
elliptic, auriculate, with a thickened transverse callus, 
with hyaline hairs on back, apex emarginate; wings 
clawed, lamellate, glabrous; keel clawed, hairy and 
with fused margins towards the apex. Stamens 9+1, 
upper stamen thickened and geniculate near base; 
filaments uniform; anthers fixed near base, versatile. 
Ovary sessile, densely hairy with adpressed long hairs; 
ovules 2; style inflexed, glabrous; stigma capitate, 
minute. Pod dark brown to almost black, oblong to 
elliptic, flattened, 8-13 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, early 
dehiscent, densely covered with ferruginous long fine 
hairs and short simple hairs. Seeds 2, oblique in pod, 
green with black mottles to dark brown, elliptic, 
dimidiate, flattened, 3-4 mm long, 2-2.8 mm wide; 
hilum obscured by caruncle; caruncle prominent, 
yellow, linear, grooved, thickened at one end. 
Flowering: Nov - Apr; fruiting: Dec - July. Fig. 23 
Found through the Old World tropics from India to 
China and as far south as tropical Australia. Common 
in the DR, occurring on a wide range of soils in open 
vegetation. Aboriginal people eat the tuber raw or after 
it has been cooked on hot coals (Wightman and Smith, 
1989). 
ERYTHRINA L. 
A genus of c. 108 species, widespread in the tropics and subtropics. Four native species are known from 
Australia, 2 in the NT. One species is found in the DR. 
E. vespertilio Benth. 
E. variegata L. var. orientalis (L.) Merr., misapplied name 
A small deciduous tree to 8 m, bark pale grey to 
cream, corky, deeply furrowed. All parts excluding 
corolla glabrate with occasional patches of stellate 
hairs, stems and rachis with + scattered prickles. 
Stipules caducous, stout, c. 1 mm long. Leaves 
pinnately 3-foliolate, rarely simple; rachis to basal 
leaflets 35-145 mm, 65-220 mm overall; stipels stout, 
obtuse, glandular, c. 1 mm long; leaflets very variable 
in shape, rhomboidal, broadly elliptic or deltoid, 
sometimes 2- or 3-lobed, 29-115 mm long, 48-155 
