Mimosa debilis Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd. var. debilis

  • 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 debilis Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd. var. debilis

  • Type

    326a. Mimosa debilis Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow var. debilis. M. debilis Humboldt & Bonpland ex Willdenow, 1806, l.c., sens. sir.—"Habitat in America meridionali prope Caripe [Sucre or Monagas, Venezuela]."— Holotypus, B-WILLD 19061, seen in microfi

  • Synonyms

    Mimosa debilis Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Mimosa obtusifolia Willd., Mimosa adhaerens Mart., Mimosa floribunda Willd., Mimosa fervida Mart., Mimosa rixosa Mart., Mimosa pauciseta Benth., Mimosa notata Steud., Mimosa hostmannii Benth., Mimosa debilis var. panamensis Benth., Mimosa panamensis (Benth.) Standl., Mimosa argentinensis Burkart, Mimosa argentinensis var. saltensis Burkart

  • Description

    Variety Description - Stems aculeate (some unarmed toward inflorescence), usually diffuse or sarmentose, but sometimes erect when young, terete or finely multicostulate; distal leaflets broadly obovate to oblanceolate, the longest 2-6.5 cm, 1.6-4 times as long as wide, never glabrous on both faces but sometimes so on upper one; capitula either conelike or moriform in praefloration, the bracts most often puberulent, or both puberulent and setose, but the setae seldom dense, not hiding the epidermis.

    Distribution and Ecology - In savanna and brush-woodland, becoming weedy in disturbed places, along fencerows, and in pasture thickets, from below 50 m in Amazonia to 1600 m in Minas Gerais, interruptedly widespread over the Orinoco and Amazon basins in n.-e. Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, extending weakly e. to Surinam and sporadically n.-w. to centr. Panama and Costa Rica, s. through the Madeira-Beni basin to e. Bolivia, Paraguay, and both n.-w. and n.-e. Argentina, and through upland planaltine Brazil to n. Paraná.—Fl. almost through the year in humid lowlands, on the Planalto mostly I-IV. Map 52.

  • Discussion

    The polymorphic var. debilis accommodates the residue of M. debilis sensu lato after extraction of the four other varieties. Some aspects of variation in it have been discussed above under the title of the species. Elements of the present var. debilis were referred by Bentham (1876) to M. rixosa, M. debilis (sens. restr.), and by Burkart to M. rixosa and M. argentinensis, but Burkart’s M. obtusifolia (1948: 214, fig. 38) is M. nuda var. glaberrima of this account.

  • Distribution

    Colombia South America| Brazil South America| Venezuela South America| Suriname South America| Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America| Bolivia South America| Paraguay South America| Argentina South America|