Parkia

Parkia
Parkia platycephala
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Mimosoideae
Tribe:	Mimoseae
Genus:	Parkia Robert Brown
Type species
Parkia biglobosa R. Wight and G. Arnott
Species
See text.

Parkia pendula - MHNT

Parkia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Several species are known as African locust bean.

In 1995, about 31 species were known.^[1] Four more have been discovered since that time.^[2] The type species for the genus is Parkia biglobosa.

Parkias are found throughout the tropics, with four species in Africa, about 10 in Asia, and about twenty in the neotropics. The neotropical species were revised in 1986.^[3]

Selected species

• Parkia balslevii
• Parkia biglobosa - néré
• Parkia filicoidea
• Parkia javanica
• Parkia korom
• Parkia parrii
• Parkia parvifoliola
• Parkia speciosa - petai, twisted cluster bean, stink bean
• Parkia timoriana - tree bean

Parkia biglandulosa inflorescence, taken at AC&RI, Killikulam, India

References

1. Melissa Luckow and Helen C.F. Hopkins. 1995. "A cladistic analysis of Parkia". American Journal of Botany 82(10):1300-1320.
2. David A. Neill. 2009. "Parkia nana (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae), a New Species from the Sub-Andean Sandstone Cordilleras of Peru". Novon 19(2):204-208. doi:10.3417/2007152
3. Helen C.F. Hopkins and Marlene Freitas Da Silva. 1986. "Parkia (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) (Flora Neotropica Monograph No. 43) with Dimorphandra (Caesalpiniaceae) (FN Monograph No. 44)". In: Flora Neotropica (series). The New York Botanical Garden Press.