Calliandra Benth.

Usually shrubs or small trees, unarmed except in one or two (non-Panamanian) species, mostly not heavily pubescent. Leaves bipinnate, the pinnae 1 to several pairs; leaflets 1 to many pairs per pinna; petiole and rachis eglandular; leaflets large and broad (ovate) or more frequently small and narrow (linear or linear-oblong), glabrous in most species, frequently ciliate marginally, almost invariably very oblique basally, the costa prominent, but the secondary veins obscure in many species; stipules mostly striate and subpersistent. Inflorescence commonly of axillary, pedunculate spikes, sometimes a terminal raceme or panicle. Flowers in dense, globose heads, sometimes dimorphic (center flower of head larger or more gross, sometimes sterile), normally 5-parted and perfect, regular, sympetalous; calyx relatively broad, mostly cupulate or campanulate; corolla usually funnelform, never narrow and tubular like species of Ingma and Pithecolobiun, usually lobed for about half its length, the lobes valvate; stamens many, elongate, conspicuous and showy, obscuring the corolla, united below into an included or exserted staminal tube; anthers small, usually eglandular; ovary usually sessile, glabrous, several-ovulate, the style filiform, the stigma terminal. Legume broadly linear, straight or nearly so, gradually constricted baseward and thus cuneate-substipitate, flat and thin, the margins elevated, bivalvate, the valves elastically dehiscent from the apex but not twisting, not septate, the seeds (obliquely) transverse or nearly longitudinal.