XVI International Botanical Congess

This paper deals with generic delimitation in Detarieae and Macrolobieae only. These tribes comprise over 80 genera, c. 57 and 25 respectively, of the total of c. 150 genera in the subfamily. The differential characters between the two tribes will be discussed. The advancement in the classification since Cowan & Polhill (1981) will be presented. Based on case studies an illustration will be given of the obstacles that are encountered, like the great number of genera, some with well established names. Nevertheless some considerable generic reductions are to be made, especially in Detarieae. In Macrolobieae no major reduction in genera is likely. However, present generic boundaries are often based on characters not reflecting evolution and will have to be changed. Finally a new classification of the genera of both tribes will be presented and compared with the current one.