32. Calliandra Bentham, J. Bot. (Hooker). 2: 138. 1840.
朱缨花属 zhu ying hua shu
Shrubs or small trees, usually unarmed. Leaves bipinnate, eglandular; stipules often persistent, or sometimes spinescent, rarely absent; pinnae 1 to several pairs; leaflets opposite, small and numerous, or larger and from few pairs to only 1. Heads globose and axillary, or racemes terminal. Flowers (5 or)6-merous, polygamous. Calyx campanulate, toothed. Petals united to middle; middle flowers sometimes heteromorphic with an elongated tubular corolla. Stamens numerous (to 100), red or white, ± united into a tube and long exserted, showy; anthers mostly glandular hairy. Ovary sessile, ovules numerous; style filiform. Legume slightly falcate, strap-shaped, flat, rigidly leathery, often narrowed to base, margin thickened, 2-valved, valves elastically opening from apex to base, continuous inside. Seeds obovoid or orbicular, compressed, testa hard, with pleurogram, without aril.
About 200 species: mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, a few in India, Madagascar, and Myanmar; two species (one introduced) in China.
Calliandra riparia Pittier, native to South America, is not treated here because it is only cultivated in China and not commonly so.
