Leguminosae
Leguminosae is one of two scientific names allowed for a plant family of close to twenty thousand species. An alternate name allowed by Art 18.6 of the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is
Fabaceae.
The family
Leguminosae is traditionally subdivided into three groups, usually recognized at the rank of subfamily, but which are regarded by some botanists as deserving family status. The largest of these can be called either
Fabaceae or Papilionaceae as a family, but not Leguminosae (
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature Art 18.6). As a subfamily it is called either Papilionoideae or Faboideae (Art 19.7). The other subfamilies are
Caesalpinioideae and
Mimosoideae, recognized as the families Caesalpiniaceae and Mimosaceae, respectively, in some classification systems.
Thus, Fabaceae can refer to either of two very differently circumscribed families, which are quite different in size. The casual term "
legume" generally refers to this group in its larger sense.
