Leguminosae is the most species rich flowering plant family in tropical Africa (Lebrun & Stork 1998) and is
currently recognised as three subfamilies, Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae. Many species
of subfamily Caesalpinioideae are ecological dominants of African forest and woodland (White 1983).
Together, caesalpinioid legumes number c. 2900 species in 171 genera and are traditionally arranged in four
tribes. The largest tribe, Detarieae, contains 82 accepted genera as enumerated by Mackinder (2005) but with
the addition of Isomacrolobium by Breteler (2010) and the removal of Pellegriniodendron which was
synonymised with the genus Gilbertiodendron by Estrella et al. (2012).