Mimosa albolanata var. paucipinna (Benth.) Barneby

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Barneby, Rupert C. 1991. Sensitivae Censitae. A description of the genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 65: 1-835.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Mimosa albolanata var. paucipinna (Benth.) Barneby

  • Type

    239c. Mimosa albolanata Taubert var. paucipinna (Bentham) Barneby, comb. nov. M. gardneri ? var. paucipinna Bentham in Martius, Fl. bras. 15(2): 388. 1876.—"Habitat in campis Brasiliae centralis: Weddell."—Holotypus, annotated by Bentham "Af. gardneri var

  • Synonyms

    Mimosa gardneri var. paucipinna Benth., Mimosa gardneri var. gardneri

  • Description

    Variety Description - Flowering stems either from humistrate, then sometimes adventitiously rooting trunks, or directly from xylopodium, variably setose or silky-setose, the facially glabrous lfts minutely or weakly ciliolate; pinnae (9-)12-23(-28)-jug., the longer ones 3-7 cm, the lfts 22-40-jug., to 1.5-2.3mm apart and the blades attaining 4.5-6.5(-9) x 1—1,8(—2) mm; capitula without filaments 10-14mm diam., the floral bracts to 3-5(-6) mm; pods ±30-50 x 11-13, scabrous overall with forwardly appressed or narrowly incurved-ascending setae to 0.7-2.5 mm, these separated by spaces greater than the diameter of their dilated base, hence not concealing the fuscous-brown face of valves.

    Distribution and Ecology - In cerrado and campo rupestre, 1050-1400 m, discontinuously dispersed on islands of sandstone caprock in s.-e. Goiás (Sas. dos Pireneus and dos Cristais) and w. and centr. Minas Gerais (Sa. dos Oculos near Patrocínio and Sa. do Espinhaço near Francisco Sá).—Fl. XI-III.

  • Discussion

    Somewhat fewer, more distant and generally longer leaflets and commonly thinner, shorter, less silky setose indumentum of the inflorescence together weakly distinguish flowering var. paucipinna from var. brasiliana; but the dark brown, more thinly and shortly scabrous-hispidulous pods (not yet confirmed in distantly disjunct populations in Minas Gerais) are characteristic.

    The earliest collections of var. paucipinna, Pohl 1469 (K, NY, W), from unknown locality were mistaken by Bentham, who had no means of knowing the great differences in stature, for M. gardneri. Pohl’s specimens consist of the herbaceous part of sessile subshrubs, that is of whole plants short of the woody terrestrial trunk or the buried xylopodium, and only fortuitously resemble terminal branchlets of arborescent M. gardneri. They closely resemble modem collections of the population, now well sampled, found on Sa. dos Cristais within ten or fifteen kilometers of Cristalina, and they may well have been obtained there. The status of the two known populations in Minas Gerais, which appear nearly identical with those of Goiás when in flower, may require reassessment when the pod is secured.

  • Distribution

    Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America|