Lewis, G.P. and Schrire, B.D., (2003). Leguminosae or Fabaceae? In: B.B. Klitgaard and A.

Bruneau (editors). Advances in Legume Systematics, part 10, Higher Level Systematics, pp 1–3.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

LEGUMINOSAE OR FABACEAE?

GWILYM P. LEWIS* AND BRIAN D. SCHRIRE

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.

Abstract
The legumes should be recognised as a single family, the Leguminosae. The
alternative name, Fabaceae, is ambiguous because it is either used for the whole
family, or only the papilionoid part of it.

Two questions are frequently asked about the legume family: what is the correct name
for the family, and should legumes be treated as one family or three? It is time for
some clarity and a standard approach so that all future students of legumes can feel
confident that they are communicating about the same group of plants.
Even the most recently published systematic literature on the legume family has
shown that not all legume researchers agree on what to call it. In Advances in Legume
Systematics part 9 (Herendeen and Bruneau, 2000) six papers included the family
name Leguminosae in their titles, while two used the term Fabaceae. One of the two
papers using Fabaceae made the unacceptable linkage of Fabaceae – Papilionoideae:
in order to be nomenclaturally correct Faboideae should have been used at subfamily
rank for the papilionoid legumes if Fabaceae was the preferred family name. This
demonstrates the level of confusion that still exists amongst legume specialists when
selecting a hierarchical nomenclature for the family.
There is an increasing body of evidence in support of the legumes being one
monophyletic family (e.g., Doyle et al., 2000; Kajita et al., 2001; Wojciechowski, 2003).
This seems likely to be reinforced over time given that all taxonomic elements of the
legumes are more closely related to each other than any single element is to the
“nearest neighbour” families, Polygalaceae and Surianaceae. While several recently
published floristic accounts still refer the legumes to three separate families (e.g.,
Nielsen (1992) and Hou et al. (1996) in Flora Malesiana; Barneby et al. (1998) and
Aymard et al. (1999) in the Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana) the most recent regional
account of the legumes, Leguminosae of Madagascar (Du Puy et al., 2002), follows the
latest systematic evidence and recognises the legumes as one family with three
subfamilies: Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae.
The three family argument for treating legumes must now be considered
untenable on two counts. Firstly, the Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae are apparently
unique and distinct lineages which arose independently within the large, basal, non-
monophyletic caesalpinioid alliance and they are not comparable to it on the same
hierarchical level. Secondly, the Caesalpinioideae, as traditionally circumscribed, is
currently under detailed scrutiny (e.g., Bruneau et al., 2000, 2001; Herendeen et al.,
2003) and division of this paraphyletic subfamily into several more clearly definable
groups comparable in status to the other two subfamilies seems inevitable once
further detailed studies have been concluded.

*author for correspondence: G.Lewis@rbgkew.org.uk

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Advances in Legume Systematics 10

Having established that the legumes are one family there remains the problem of
what name to give it, and on this issue legume specialists differ on whether to use the
family name Leguminosae or Fabaceae. Both names are acceptable following Articles
18.5 and 18.6 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) (Greuter
et al., 2000). Fabaceae, based on the genus Faba (now considered as a generic synonym
of Vicia), was first used by J. Lindley (1836). For those who prefer that the suffix
“aceae” be added in all cases to the stem of a legitimate name of an included genus,
Fabaceae thus stands as the only acceptable name for the family derived from genus
Faba (Stafleu et al., 1978; Isely and Polhill, 1980). Use of the term Fabaceae is, however,
ambiguous since it may refer either to the legume family as a whole (thus including all
three subfamilies, as in Zarucchi et al. (1993)), or to subfamily Papilionoideae (which
contains genus Faba) when this is considered under its alternative taxonomic status as
one of three separate families, the Papilionaceae (as in Neill et al. (1999)).
The use of the family name Leguminosae exists, however, as an accepted
alternative name for Fabaceae, since the 1978 International Code of Botanical
Nomenclature (Stafleu et al., 1978) permits the use of alternative names for certain
families “sanctioned by long usage”. The most recent ICBN (Greuter et al., 2000) also
states (Article 18.5) that the Leguminosae is a validly published name, and it is thus
an acceptable alternative to Fabaceae.

The options, therefore, are:

• 1. Leguminosae (at family level); Papilionoideae, Mimosoideae and
Caesalpinioideae (at subfamily level).
• 2. Fabaceae (= Leguminosae, at family level); Faboideae (=Papilionoideae),
Mimosoideae and Caesalpinioideae (at subfamily level). The legumes are here
treated as one family.
• 3. Fabaceae (=Papilionaceae, at family level). This is here treated as one of three
families with Mimosaceae and Caesalpiniaceae as the other two.

There remains a need to avoid the ambiguity presented in options two and three,
both of which are witnessed in the various examples given above. The preferred
option, therefore, is the first one in which the legumes are recognised as a single
family, the Leguminosae. This is the nomenclatural standard set in this volume of
Advances in Legume Systematics by the editors Klitgaard and Bruneau. It is also the
standard that will be adopted in Legumes of the World (Lewis et al. (editors), in press).
We strongly suggest that from now on all students and teachers of the legume family
refer to a single family, the Leguminosae.

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