LEGUMINOSAEORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE FAMILY NAMEA large family of flowering plants that is very important economically is that of the Leguminosae or sometimes known as Fabaceae. Although Leguminosae is an older name it is still considered valid but the new name is Fabaceae and comes from the genus Faba and the term Faba is Latin and means bean. The group is the third largest plant family in the world with 630 genera and 18,860 species. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAMILY The Leguminosae have a very wide range of plants which include trees, shrubs and perennials or annuals. These plants are easily recognizable by their stipulated leaves and their fruits. and their compound. The main unifying characteristic of the family is the fruit, a pod, technically known as a legume. The legume is modified in many ways to facilitate its dispersal by animals, wind and water. The leaves of legumes are alternate and most often they are even or odd pinnately compound, sometimes they are trifoliate and rarely palmate. The flowers often have five fused sepals and five free petals, the flowers are usually hermaphroditic and have a short, usually cup-shaped hypanthium. Ten stamens and an elongated upper ovary are normal. Most commonly, the ovary develops into a simple dried fruit that opens along the seam on both sides.GENERA WITHIN THE FAMILYThe Leguminosae family contains approximately 630 genera, making it the third largest family plant in the world. The largest general of the Leguminosae family is Astragalus with over 2,000 species. The genus is native to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Herbs and small shrubs are the main components of the Astragalus genus. Acacia is the second largest genus in the family Leguminosae, the main Acacia family...... middle of paper ......flowers-and-weeds.com/Plant_Families/Fabaceae.htmKlitgård, BB & Lewis , GP (2010). Neotropical legumes (Mimosoideae). In: Milliken, W., Klitgård, B. & Baracat, A. (from 2009), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. http://www.kew.org/ science/tropamerica/neotropikey /families/Leguminosae_(Mimosoideae).htm.Zarucchi, JL 1993. Fabaceae. In: L. Brako & JL Zarucchi (eds.). Catalog of flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Systematic Botany Monographs of the Missouri Botanical Garden, Vol. 45: Fabaceae pp. 444-527. Clement, BA, Goff, CM, Forbes, TDA Amines and toxic alkaloids from Acacia rigidula, Phytochem. 1998, 49(5), 1377. Wojciechowski, Martin F., Johanna Mahn, and Bruce Jones. 2006. Fabaceae. legumes. Version June 14, 2006. The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/