Author: Linnaeus
Morphological description
Trees or shrubs, armed; branches slender, often pendent. Stipules spinescent, persistent or caducous.
Leaves crowded on short shoots, spirally arranged, bipinnate, 2 (4, or 6) opposite pinnae, the rachis of pinnae elongate, flattened, phyllodial (Parkins aculeata compl 431662 ). Leaflets small, numerous, along margins of pinnae, opposite or subopposite, caducous.
Inflorescences of racemose units, crowded on short shoots; bracts and bracteoles absent or absent at anthesis.
Flowers perfect, showy, fragrant (Parkins aculeata fl/lf 256095 ). Hypanthium very short, obliquely campanulate. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes equal, deciduous. Petals 5, slightly zygomorphic or very zygomorphic, irnbricate, clawed. Stamens 10, more or less equal or unequal in length, free, fertile; anthers introrsely or longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary stipitate, free, 6-15-ovuled; style filiform; stigma minute.
Pods pendent, often externally constrjcted between the seeds, dehiscent, 1-10-seeded.
Seeds albuminous.
Distribution
Monotypic or consisting of 11-15 species, depending on the interpretation of generic limits; native of tropical and subtropical America and S Africa. One species cultivated in Malesia: Parkinsonia aculeata .
Note
For recent reviews about the generic delimitation and bibliography of Parkinsonia, see the papers by e.g. Isely (1975: 169), Robertson & Lee (1976: 32), and Gunn (1991: 114). The generic description given above applies mainly or only to Parkinsonia aculeata .