Ormocarpum
(from ormos, a chain, and karpos, a fruit; referring to the narrow, chain-like pods). SYNS. Diphaca and Rathkea. ORD. Leguminosae. A small genus (about half-a-dozen species) of tall, often glutinous, stove or greenhouse shrubs, of which one is broadly dispersed between the tropics in Asia and Africa, two or three are indigenous to tropical Africa, and two are Mexican. Flowers yellow, white, or purple-striped, in short, axillary racemes; standard orbicular, unguiculate. Pods linear, compressed. Leaves sometimes impari-pinnate, with small exstipellate leaflets, sometimes one-foliolate, with a large, acute leaflet; stipules striped. The undermentioned, the only species in cultivation, is a greenhouse evergreen, of strong habit. Young specimens only are adapted to pot culture; the older ones should be placed out in the borders in summer. A compost of peat and loam is the best soil for this plant. Propagation may be effected, in April, by cuttings of half-ripened shoots, inserted in the compost above mentioned.
O. coronilloides (Coronilla-like). fl. pale yellow; peduncles many-flowered, axillary. May. l. impari-pinnate; leaflets ovate, glabrous, small, sub-sessile, opposite or alternate. Stem arboreous; branches spreading. Tropical Africa.