Dendrolobium Genus

Dendrolobium is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, placed within subfamily Faboideae. It comprises roughly 18–21 accepted species (counts vary between the World Checklist and regional floras) of shrubs, small trees, and occasionally herbs. The genus was first described by Robert Wight and George Arnott in 1834 as a subgenus of Desmodium, and was later raised to full generic rank by George Bentham in Miquel's Plantae Junghuhnianae (1852).

Species are characterized by leaves that are usually three-foliolate (rarely single-leafleted), with a terminal leaflet larger than the laterals, and axillary, umbel-like or shortly racemose inflorescences of densely clustered flowers. The calyx is bell-shaped or tubular with five lobes, the upper two of which are fused so the flower appears four-lobed. Corollas are white or pale yellow, with an obovate to nearly round, clawed standard petal and narrow, clawed wing petals. The stamens are joined into a single tube (monadelphous), and the ovary matures into a distinctive necklace-like (moniliform) legume of one to eight indehiscent joints, each seed wrapped in a conspicuous rim-like aril.

Dendrolobium ranges across tropical and subtropical Asia and Australia, with outlying populations reported from eastern Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) and Madagascar; five species occur in China, one of them endemic. Plants typically grow in seasonally dry tropical forest and woodland, bamboo thickets, and grassland, reflecting a preference for open, monsoon-influenced habitats rather than closed rainforest. Two of the more widespread members, D. umbellatum and D. triangulare, are common shrubs of coastal and secondary vegetation from India through Malesia to northern Australia and the southwestern Pacific.