Sophora Totally Explained

Everything about Sophora totally explained

Sophora is a genus of about 45 species of small trees and shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to southeast Europe, southern Asia, Australasia, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and western South America.
   The genus formerly had a broader interpretation including many other species now treated in other genera, notably Styphnolobium (pagoda tree genus), which differs in lacking nitrogen fixing bacteria (rhizobia) on the roots, and Calia (the mescalbeans). Styphnolobium has galactomannans as seed polysaccharide reserve, in contrast Sophora contains arabino-galactans, and Calia amyloid.
   The New Zealand Sophora species are known as Kowhai.
   The Toromiro (Sophora toromiro) was formerly a common tree in the forests of Easter Island. The tree fell victim to the deforestation that eliminated the island's forests by the 18th century, and later became extinct in the wild. The tree is being reintroduced to the island in a scientific project partly led jointly by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Göteborg Botanical Garden, where the only remaining plants of this species with a documented origin were propagated in the 1960s from seeds collected by Thor Heyerdahl. Sophora macrocarpa is a Chilean Matorral small tree native from Chile, called Mayo or Mayú.

Selected species

Sophora albescens (Rehder) C.Y.Ma
Sophora alopecuroides L. - Sophora Root
Sophora cassioides (Phil.) Sparre or Sophora macnabiana Skottsb.- Pelu (Chile)
Sophora chathamica Cockayne - Coastal Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora chrysophylla (Salisb.)Seem. - Mamane
Sophora davidii (Franch.) Skeels
Sophora fernandeziana (Phil.)Skottsb. - (Juan Fernández Islands)
Sophora flavescens Aiton
Sophora fulvida (Allan)Heenan & de Lange - Waitakere Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora godleyi - Godley Kowhai, Papa Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora howinsula (Oliv.) P. S. Green
Sophora inhambanensis Klotzsch
Sophora koreensis Nakai
Sophora lehmannii (Bunge)Kuntze
Sophora longicarinata - Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora masafuerana Skottsb. - (Juan Fernández Islands)
Sophora macrocarpa Sm. - (Chile)
Sophora microphylla Aiton - Small-leaved Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora mollis (Royle) Graham ex Baker
Sophora molloyi - Cook Strait Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora moorcroftiana Benth.
Sophora nuttalliana B. L. Turner
Sophora pachycarpa Schrenk ex C. A. Mey.
Sophora prostrata Buchanan - Dwarf Kowhai, Prostrate Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora tetraptera J.F.Muell. - Large-leaved Kowhai, Taupo Kowhai (New Zealand)
Sophora tomentosa L. - Necklace Pod, Mamane (Pantropical coastal)
Sophora tonkinensis Gagnep.
Sophora toromiro Skottsb.- Toromiro (Easter Island)
Sophora velutina Lindl.
Sophora violacea Thwaites

References and external links

Germplasm Resources Information Network: Sophora

Sophora macrocarpa pictures from Chilebosque

Heenan P.B, de Lange P.J, Wilton A.D. (2001) "Sophora (Fabaceae) in New Zealand: taxonomy, distrubution and biogeography." New Zealand Journal of Botany. 39: 17-53 on line

Further Information

Get more info on 'Sophora'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://sophora.totallyexplained.com">Sophora Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.