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Arabian Pea

Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C. H. Stirt.

Comprehensive Description

provided by North American Flora
Asphalthium bituminosum (L.) Kuntze; Post & Kuntze, Lex Gen. Phan. 48. 1903.
Psoralea biluminosa L. Sp. PI. 763. 1753. „ ,. ,„ n ]7S7
AspLlhnun frulcscns Medic. Vorles Churpf. ***■**£ Ges ' 2 ' 380 1 ' 87 ' Rhynchodium biltiminosum Presl, Bot. Bemerk. 54. 1846.
Stem 5-10 dm. high, decumbent at the base, strigose and striate; stipules distinct, subulate 5-^0 mm. lo ng; petioles 1-2 cm. long; leaflets lanceolate, 4-6 ^cm ^ ^™f .^ conspicuously veined, entire, acute; peduncles 1-2.5 dm. long; spikes 1.5-2. cm long bract ovate caudate-acuminate; calyx strigose; tube 5-6 mm. long; lobes lance-subulate, the lowest Ho mm. long, the rest 6-7 mm. long; corolla lilac or rose, with purple-tipped keel, banner about 5 mm. long; beak of the pod about 7 mm. long.
^tViBrmoNSouthern Europe, northern Africa, and the Orient; occasionally escaped from ^Z£™£££™?££. ^/TWr. Hand,, * 210; Sibth. Ft Graeca pi. 738.
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bibliographic citation
Per Axel Rydberg. 1919. (ROSALES); FABACEAE; PSORALEAE. North American flora. vol 24(1). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
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Physical Description

provided by USDA PLANTS text
Perennial, Herbs, Nodules present, Stems erect or as cending, Stems less than 1 m tall, Stems 1-2 m tall, Plants gland-dotted or with gland-tipped hairs, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs sparsely to densely hairy, Stem hairs hispid to villous, Leaves alternate, Leaves petiolate, Stipules conspicuous, Stipules green, triangulate to lanceolate or foliaceous, Stipules persistent, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves palmately 2-3 foliate, Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, Leaves odd pinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets dentate or denticulate, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets 3, Leaves glandular punctate or gland-dotted, Inflorescence umbel-like or subumbellate, Inflorescences globose heads, capitate or subcapitate, Inflorescence axillary, Bracts conspicuously present, Flowers zygomorphic, Calyx 5-lobed, Calyx glabrous, Petals separate, Corolla papilionaceous, Petals clawed, Petals blue, lavander to purple, or violet, Banner petal narrow or oblanceolate, Banner petal auriculate, Wing petals narrow, oblanceolate to oblong, W ing petals auriculate, Keel petals auriculate, spurred, or gibbous, Stamens 9-10, Stamens monadelphous, united below, Stamens diadelphous, 9 united, 1 free, Filaments glabrous, Style terete, Style persistent in fruit, Fruit a legume, Fruit unilocular, Fruit indehiscent, Fruit oblong or ellipsoidal, Fruit enclosed in calyx, Fruit inflated or turgid, Fruit beaked, Fruit hairy, Fruit 1-seeded, Seeds ovoid to rounded in outline, Seed surface smooth, Seeds olive, brown, or black.
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Dr. David Bogler
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Bituminaria bituminosa

provided by wikipedia EN

Bituminaria bituminosa, the Arabian pea or pitch trefoil,[1] is a perennial Mediterranean herb species in the genus Bituminaria.

The pterocarpans bitucarpin A and B can be isolated from the aerial parts of B. bituminosa.[2]

It has several potential uses: (i) forage crop, (ii) Phytostabilization of heavy metal contaminated or degraded soils, (iii) Synthesis of furanocoumarins (psoralen, angelicin, xanthotoxin and bergapten), compounds of broad pharmaceutical interest.

It is easily recognizable by the characteristic smell of bitumen from its leaves. This strong tar-like characteristic aroma appears to be the result of a combination of several substances such as phenolics, sulphurated compounds, sesquiterpenes and probably short-chain hydrocarbon. Total polyphenols content was < 2% and the condensed tannins was <0.8% in a dry weight basis.

Taxonomy

The Arabian pea was first legitimately described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum, the work which is now internationally accepted as the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature, and he called it Psoralea bituminosa. Philipp Conrad Fabricius described the genus Bituminaria in 1759, that was suggested by Lorenz Heister earlier, but without a proper description. In 1787, Friedrich Kasimir Medikus described a woody form as Asphalthium frutescens and a herbaceous form as Asphalthium herbaceum. Jules Pierre Fourreau considered that Linnaeus was the earliest and he made the new combination Asphalthium bituminosum in 1868. When Charles Howard Stirton revised some of the Papilionoideae of southern Africa in 1981, he reassigned many species that had been included in Psoralea to several new genera, including the Arabian pea. He considered Asphalthium a later synonym for Bituminaria and therefore created the new combination Bituminaria bituminosa.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. ^ Pterocarpans from Bituminaria morisiana and Bituminaria bituminosa. Dedicated to the memory of Professor Jeffrey B. Harborne. Luisa Pistelli, Cecilia Noccioli, Giovanni Appendino, Federica Bianchi, Olov Sterner and Mauro Ballero, Phytochemistry, Volume 64, Issue 2, September 2003, Pages 595-598, doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(03)00190-0
  3. ^ Stirton, Charles Howard (1981). "Studies in the Leguminosae— Papilionoideae of southern Africa". Bothalia. 13 (3/4): 317–325.

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Bituminaria bituminosa: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Bituminaria bituminosa, the Arabian pea or pitch trefoil, is a perennial Mediterranean herb species in the genus Bituminaria.

The pterocarpans bitucarpin A and B can be isolated from the aerial parts of B. bituminosa.

It has several potential uses: (i) forage crop, (ii) Phytostabilization of heavy metal contaminated or degraded soils, (iii) Synthesis of furanocoumarins (psoralen, angelicin, xanthotoxin and bergapten), compounds of broad pharmaceutical interest.

It is easily recognizable by the characteristic smell of bitumen from its leaves. This strong tar-like characteristic aroma appears to be the result of a combination of several substances such as phenolics, sulphurated compounds, sesquiterpenes and probably short-chain hydrocarbon. Total polyphenols content was < 2% and the condensed tannins was

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