Ormosia
| Ormosia subsp. var. | Ormosias, Horse-eye beans | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ormosia is a genus of legumes (family Fabaceae). The more than 110 living species, mostly trees or large shrubs, are distributed throughout the tropical regions of the world, some extending into temperate zones, especially in East Asia. A few species are threatened by habitat destruction, while the Hainan Ormosia (O. howii) is probably extinct already.
Plants in this genus are commonly known as horse-eye beans or simply ormosias, and in Spanish by the somewhat ambiguous term "chocho". The scientific name Ormosia is a nomen conservandum, overruling Toulichiba which is formally rejected in the 2006 International Code of Botanical Nomenclature[1].
The seeds of these plants are poisonous if eaten, but often look pretty, with bright colors and decorative patterns reminiscent of an eye; the common name "horse-eye beans" refers to these seeds. They resemble the seeds of Abrus, snoutbeans (Rhynchosia) and Adenanthera, but are much larger than the former two. In particular those of Ormosia coccinea are often used for jewelry and other decorative purposes, or as good luck charms. The seeds float and are occasionally found as "sea beans".
| Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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Ormosia (from Greek, for necklace: the brilliant seeds of some species used as beads). Leguminosae. Necklace Tree. Trees, around the world in the tropics, of 40 or more species, bearing large panicles or racemes of white, lilac or black-purple papilionaceous fls., and often handsomely colored seeds, planted sometimes in warm countries: calyx more or less 2-lobed, the 2 upper teeth being somewhat connate: standard very broad, the wings obovate-oblong and oblique; stamens free and unequal; stigma lateral: pod leathery, woody, or fleshy, oblong to linear and compressed, wingless and 2-valved, sometimes septate: Lvs. odd-pinnate, with coriaceous lfts. Other species do not appear in accessible lists, but they may be sparingly in cult. O. coccinea. Jacks., of 8. Amer., is in horticultural literature: lfts. ovate, the margins revolute: fls. blue: pod glabrous and shining; seeds scarlet, with black spot.
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Cultivation
Propagation
Pests and diseases
Species
116 species are accepted as valid by ILDIS:[2]
Gallery
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
