Tabebuia ochracea (Cham.) Standl. subsp. ochracea

  • Authority

    Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tabebuia ochracea (Cham.) Standl. subsp. ochracea

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Sellow s.n. (B*, lectotype, K; isotypes, HGB, G, L, W).

  • Synonyms

    Tecoma ochracea Cham., Tecoma hypodictyon DC., Tecoma heteropoda DC., Bignonia tomentosa Thunb., Tecoma hassleri Sprague, Tecoma grandiceps Kraenzl., Tecoma campinae Kraenzl., Tecoma hemmendorffiana Kraenzl., Tabebuia hypodictyon (DC.) Standl., Handroanthus ochraceus (Cham.) Mattos, Tabebuia ochracea subsp. heteropoda (DC.) A.H.Gentry

  • Description

    Subspecies Description - Often rather gnarled and twisted tree 4-12(-25) m tall, the branchlets subtetragonal to subterete, stellate and short-dendroid puberulous when young with tannish trichomes, more or less glabrescent. Leaves palmately (3-) 5-foliolate, the leaflets oblong-obovate to oblong-elliptic, obtuse or rounded to abruptly cuspidate-subacuminate, basally obtuse to truncate or shallowly subcordate, the terminal leaflet (1.5-)3-13 cm long, 2.3-9 cm wide (to 23 by 11 cm in juveniles), the laterals progressively smaller, entire or rarely slightly obtusely dentate, chartaceous to coriaceous, more or less lepidote above and below, above also glabrescently stellate-puberulous (a few trichomes persisting at least along midvein), below densely and persistently stellate puberulous, the surface conspicuously light tannish from the trichomes (less densely but still conspicuously stellate in juvenile plants), smooth above or gritty (from the trichomes) but never scabrous, the tertiary venation usually strongly intricately reticulate below; terminal petiolule 1-5(-7.5 in juveniles) cm long, the petiole 2.5-12(-25 in juveniles) cm long, tannish stellate puberulous. Inflorescence a dense contracted terminal raceme or reduced to subsessile cluster, the flowers subsessile or with pedicels to 1 mm long and tannish pilose with simple and slightly barbate trichomes. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, irregularly shallowly 5-lobed, 8-18(-20) mm long, 6-14(-20) mm wide, villous with tannish simple and weakly barbate trichomes, these mostly ca. 1 mm long (-3 mm in Folli 39), also with shorter stellate trichomes, the indumentum with a strong tendency to glabrescence; corolla yellow with reddish pencilling in throat, the venation of the lobes when dry usually inconspicuous and the yellowish lobes thus contrastingly lighter than the darker drying tube, tubular-infundibuliform, 4.5-9 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 3.5-6 cm long, the lobes 1-3 cm long, mostly glabrous outside, usually with a few stellate trichomes along veins below sinuses and also sparsely on inside of lobes, the sinuses and floor of throat pilose inside with long simple somewhat flexuous multicelled trichomes, these mostly ca. 1 mm long, also more or less glandular-pubescent at stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the thecae divergent, 3 mm long; pistil 2-2.7 cm long, the ovary oblong, 3-4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, more or less glandular lepidote, also usually minutely puberulous; disk annular-pulvinate, 0.5-1 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. Fruit a linear-cylindric capsule, narrowing to base and apex, 12-30 cm long, 1.5-2.2 cm wide, usually golden tannish (occasionally rusty: Folli 463) villous with barbate and sparsely dendroid mostly ca. 2 mm long trichomes, also with shorter stellate hairs, the indumentum distinctly glabrescent (except Folli 463); seeds 0.8-11 cm long, 2.2-3.3 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, conspicuously demarcated from seed body.

  • Discussion

    Although I have seen no authentic material of T. campinae nor T. hemmendorffiana, their description as related to T. chrysotricha but with densely whitish pubescent leaf undersurfaces leaves little doubt that both are conspecific with T. ochracea which is common in the Campinas area of São Paulo State. This species tends to intergrade with T. chrysotricha (see discussion below and under that species). One atypical plant (Folli 39, 463, Peixoto et al. 3474) from Linhares, Espírito Santo has much redder pubescence and longer calyx trichomes approaching in pubescence color T. chrysotricha and in the length and form of trichomes T. ochracea ssp. neochrysantha; this is also the largest individual on record and the only collection clearly from intact closed canopy forest. It is not clear to what extent this represents ecotypic variation or an individual extreme. As treated here, T. ochracea is a polymorphic species with allopatric populations in different parts of the neotropics treated as subspecies. All are held together by the villous calyx and fruit indumentum, the mature leaves of mature plants mostly smooth or smoothish above, the corolla throat pilose, the outside of the tube with at least a few stellate trichomes near base of lobes and the lobes (usually) drying a clear yellow contrasting with the darker drying tube. All of these forms also are conspicuously pubescent on the leaflet undersurfaces but the density of the leaflet undersurface indumentum varies geographically and is an important inter-subspecific differentiating character. Several forms of T. ochracea that I have not formally recognized taxonomically deserve special mention. One of these is represented by a group of collections (Irwin & Soderstrom 5062, 5846, Heringer 12168, 14825, 15952) from the Distrito Federal of Brazil that differ in having the dried corolla lobes strongly veined and concolorous with the tube as in T. serratifolia or T. chrysantha. Unfortunately, none of these collections has leaves, and the flowers seem otherwise identical with the sympatric typical form of T. ochracea. Especially interesting is Heringer et al. 595 which has attached flowers with the typical clear-yellow-drying lobes but additional unattached flowers with strongly veined lobes. This collection also has unattached leaflets of typical T. ochracea. I suspect that the unattached corollas are from a different tree, although they could also represent an ageing phenomenon. At any rate, the occurrence of both corolla types under the same collection number would appear to rule out drying artifact as a potential explanation for this difference. It is possible that this group of collections represents hybrid introgression with T. serratifolia or T. umbellata. The collections of T. ochracea from the southwestern part of its distribution also present an unresolved taxonomic problem. I have previously (Gentry, 1982c) referred these collections to T. ochracea ssp. heteropoda, but additional collections from dry parts of the Andean foothill area of Peru indicate that these populations are not adequately distinct from typical T. ochracea for taxonomic recognition. Some of the material previously referred to T. ochracea ssp. heteropoda may be conspecific with T. chrysantha instead (see discussion under that species) and exclusion of these collections leaves the western populations of T. ochracea much more homogeneously similar to typical T. ochracea. The status of the collections from extreme northwestern Argentina that are here included in T. ochracea remains unclear. Most of the northwestern Argentina collections that were referred by Fabris (1965) to T. lapacho are more like T. chrysotricha or T. chrysantha on account of the leaflets rough above and relatively sparsely stellate-pubescent below. The corolla lobes have a tendency to have darker venation when dry, as in T. chrysantha, but unlike T. ochracea or T. chrysotricha. A few leafless collections from Argentina and Bolivia have the corolla lobes drying clear yellow and thus presumably belong to T. ochracea ssp. ochracea. I have seen no fruiting collections from this region. I suspect that part of the Argentinian/Bolivian collections will prove referable to T. ochracea and part to T. chrysantha, on the basis of villous vs. short-tomentose fruit indumenta, respectively. The following collections are representative of the unassigned ochracea/chrysantha/chrysotricha intermediates: BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Ituiutuba, Fda. Sta. Terezinha, (fl), Muedo 725 (MBM). Santa Catarina: Brusque, 26 Sep 1948 (fl), Reitz 3541 (B, MBM, MO, NY, S). BOLIVIA. Beni: Vaca Diez, 18 km E of Riberalta, 21 Sep 1981 (fr), Solomon 6379 (MO). Chuquisaca: Canon de Bojodes, 10 km N de Monteagudo, 18 Sep 1980, Muhlbauer s.n. (MO). Santa Cruz: Sara, 5 Sep 1925 (fl), Steinbach 7218 (MO, S). Tarija: Arce, ca. 2 hr N of Sidras, 25 Apr 1983 (st), Solomon 10102 (CTES, MO). PARAGUAY. Asunción: San Lorenzo, 19 Aug 1893 (st), Lindman A1873 (MO). Central: Ypacaray, Sep 1913 (fl), Hassler 12266 (L, MO); Villa Elisa, 1 Oct 1967 (fl), Pedersen 8454 (C, CTES, LP). Paraguarí: La Rosada, Ybycui National Park, 1 Oct 1985 (fl), Gentry et al. 51908 (MO, PY); Parque Nacional Ybycui, 22 Jul 1984 (st), Hahn 2648 (MO, PY). ARGENTINA. Jujuy: Ledesma, Sierra de Calilegua, 7 Sep 1927 (fl), Venturi 5188 (LP, MO, US); Ledesma, Yuto, El Bananal, 19 Oct 1963 (fl), Fabris 4550 (LP).

  • Common Names

    lapacho amarillo, guayacán, tajibo amarillo, caraiba, ipe-caraiba, pau-d’arco-amarelo, ipe-amarelo, ipe, piuva, piuvinha, ipe macaco, ipe do mata, tayu peruru, lapacho amarillo, tahuari, guayacán

  • Distribution

    A very typical element of the cerrado of central Brazil and adjacent regions; also occurring outside the cerrado but rarely inside closed canopy forest; near sea level to 1600 m elevation.

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