Piptadenia Benth.

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

Vernacular

soroca, angico de bezerro, jurema preta, surucuçu, icarapé pau jacaré

Habit

Trees, shrubs (erect and scandent) and lianas

Ecology

Tropical lowland rain forest, coastal and riparian forest, tropical to subtropical seasonally dry forest, secondary forest, woodland, thorn scrub (caatinga) and rocky wooded grassland

Distribution

S America with centres in Amazonia linking to the Atlantic forests of Brazil (c. 10 spp.), NE & E Brazil drylands with extension to Venezuela (c. 4 spp., one extending to C America and Mexico); sub-Andean drylands in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia (c. 2 spp.); SE Brazil (c. 4 spp.); 2 spp. widespread in drylands from Mexico and C America to Argentina

Note

Genus much in need of revision and new taxa await description. Polyphyletic in most recent molecular analyses (Luckow et al., 2003); the type was not included in the analysis so its position within the genus is not clear; presently placed in the Piptadenia group, where two species form a strongly supported clade with Parapiptadenia, Stryphnodendron and Microlobius, in the analysis of Luckow et al. (2003)

Use

Various species used for timber ( surucuçu, icarapé, soroca, jurema preta, pau jacaré, angico de bezerro ) for construction, posts, tool handles, carving and firewood; tannins are extracted from the bark