Family:
Fabaceae Lindl.

Dipteryx Schreb.

This genus is accepted, and its native range is Central & S. Tropical America.

[LOWO]

Legumes of the World. Edited by G. Lewis, B. Schrire, B. MacKinder & M. Lock. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (2005)

Note

The earlier affinities of this group of genera are discussed by Polhill (1981c). The analysis of Pennington et al. (2001) confirms that the three genera of Dipterygeae form a monophyletic group which is sister to elements within Swartzieae sens. lat. and Sophoreae sens. lat. (Fig. 30). The Amazonian genus Monopteryx (treated here in tribe Sophoreae) may belong with this group (Lima, pers. comm.). Two of the three genera in Dipterygeae are essentially Amazonian wet forest in distribution (Dipteryx also occurring in Central America with a single species to drier areas in central Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay), while Pterodon inhabits the drier areas of east and central Brazil and east Bolivia. Wood anatomy has proved diagnostic, particularly in distinguishing between Dipteryx and Taralea (Gasson, 1999), and this has underpinned the conclusions of Lewis & Gasson (2000). The tribe as treated here comprises c. 22 species.

Habit
Trees
Ecology
Tropical rain forest (riverine and usually non-inundated) to seasonally dry forest (some on white sand) and woodland (cerrado)
Distribution
S America (mostly Amazonian [4 spp. in Venezuela]; 2 spp. to C America [Panama to Honduras]; 1 sp. to drier areas of C Brazil, E Bolivia and Paraguay)

[LOWO]
Use
A subgroup of c. 3 species produce fragrant coumarin-yielding seeds, e.g., D. odorata (Aubl.) Willd. (cumaru, tonka bean, sarrapia, almendro) is a major source of coumarin whose vanilla-like fragrance is used for scenting tobacco, snuff and confectionery, and is an ingredient of perfumes and cosmetics; the beans also yield a high percentage of solid fat or tonka butter which is used to flavour food; plants produce balsam resins (oleoresin) and red gums from the leaves, stems and bark; 1 species bears pods with a sweet, edible pericarp; the hard wood is generally used for heavy construction, flooring, shafts, bearings, veneers and in craft objects; also used for charcoal and medicine

Native to:

Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela

Introduced into:

Nauru

Dipteryx Schreb. appears in other Kew resources:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Jan 1, 1984 Santos, J.U. [734], Brazil K000892265 Yes
Jan 1, 1977 Pennington, T.D. [22640], Brazil K000892263 Yes
Anderson, W.R. [10157], Brazil K000892264 Yes

First published in Gen. Pl., ed. 8[a], 2: 485 (1791)

Accepted by

  • Govaerts, R. (2000). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS D: 1-30141.

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Legumes of the World Online

    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Wood Anatomy Microscope Slides

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/