Prosopis burkartii Munoz

Family: Fabaceae,  Subfamily: Mimosoideae

NOTE: Only one seed of Prosopis burkartii was available for examination. Therefore, the description and images in this fact sheet may not be representative of this species’ seeds.

Description

Pods submoniliform in 1-3 tight thick coils; ca. 15-21 mm long, 1-18 mm wide, with individual coils ca. 8 mm thick. Mostly multiple fruits in a spike form a globose mass. Yellowish-brown, puberulous. Seeds oriented longitudinally.

Seeds broadly obovate or broadly elliptic in outline, with an umbo, ca. 4.2-5.2 mm long, 2.6-4 mm wide, 1.5-1.8 mm thick; elliptic, rhombic or irregular in cross section. Pleurogram tilted, open-ended. Lens a mound.

Identification remarks

The pods are distinctive. Tilted pleurogram of seed may be a distinguishing character.

Distribution

Chile.

General information

Prosopis burkartii is a large, creeping shrub 0.5-1.5 m tall. The pods intermingle, forming a globose mass. This rare and isolated species may have originated from the hybridization of Prosopis tamarugo X P. strombulifera.

For more information about the genus Prosopis, see the Prosopis fact sheet.

Seed

Lens and hilum of seed

Pods

A, Pod; B, seed; C, longitudinal section of seed showing embryo; D, transection of seed

drawing by Lynda E. Chandler