BOTANY WITH BASICS OF HYDROBOTANY (AQUATIC PLANTS OF UKRAINE) - B.Ye. Yakubenko - 2011

X. SEED PLANTS

Order Fabales (Legumes)

Trees, shrubs, subshrubs, and perennial or annual herbs, predominantly with alternate, rarely opposite, mostly compound (pinnately compound, less commonly palmately compound and trifoliate) or simple leaves, in most cases with stipules. Flowers are bisexual, or rarely unisexual, zygomorphic, less commonly actinomorphic, mostly pentamerous, with a double perianth, predominantly arranged in inflorescences such as racemes, spikes, or heads. Sepals five (three to six), free or more frequently connate to varying degrees. Petals isomerous with the sepals, free or with the two anterior ones fused at the base, valvate or more often imbricate, rarely petals absent or only one present. Stamens mostly ten, rarely nine, sometimes fewer, or conversely, numerous. Filaments free or connate. Gynoecium apocarpous, usually monomerous, rarely consisting of two or more carpels, with a terminal stylodium bearing a capitate stigma, and with two to numerous ovules in each carpel. Fruit a legume (pod), rarely of another type.

Representatives of the order are distributed across almost the entire globe. Their economic importance is exceptionally high: it includes many valuable tropical and extratropical trees and shrubs, forage grasses, grain legumes, ornamental, and industrial plants, many of which are widely cultivated.

A large order comprising three subfamilies, 650 genera, and 18,000 species. In the flora of Ukraine, it is represented by 59 genera and 340 species.