Agati grandiflora (L.) Desv.

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

  • Family

    Fabaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Agati grandiflora (L.) Desv.

  • Description

    Species Description - Agati grandiflora Desvaux, Journal de Botanique 1: 120. 1813. Conspicuous by large, white, or sometimes red flowers, the largest flowers of any tree of the Pea Family in the West Indies, and also interesting from its numerous, long, slender and drooping pods. It forms a tree, reaching maximum height of about 12 meters, its trunk up to 30 centimeters in diameter, the bark rough, the nearly white wood soft, and light, the leaves delicately compound. The tree is a native of tropical Asia, and has become spontaneous after cultivation in the West Indies and in southern Florida. It is frequent in Porto Rico, along roads and in thickets, and grows also on Vieques Island. Cresta de gallo is another Spanish name. Agati (Malabar name), a genus established by the eminent French botanist Adanson in 1763 is Monotypic, one species only being known, Agati grandiflora (large flowers). The tree is of rapid growth and relatively short duration; its leaves are equally pinnate, short-stalked, composed of from 10 to 3O pairs of oblong blunt or notched, thin untoothed leaflets from 2 to 4 centimeters long; they are smooth, or, when young, finely hairy. The showy flowers are few together in axillary clusters shorter than the leaves; the bell-shaped calyx is 2 or 2.5 centimeters long, with broadly triangular, short lobes; the corolla is from 6 to 10 centimeters long, with an ovate to oblong standard, long and narrow wings, and curved keel-petals which are separate at both ends; there are 9 united stamens and 1 separate; the ovary is stalked, the style curved, the small stigma capitate. The slender pods are from 20 to 40 centimeters long, about 8 millimeters wide, beaked at the apex, narrowed at the base into a long stalk, and partitioned between the seeds.

  • Discussion

    Gallito Corkwood Tree Pea Family Aeschynomene grandiflora Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 1060. 1753. Sesban grandiflorus Poiret, in Lamarck Encyclopedie Méthodique 7: 127. 1806.