Ebenopsis confinis (Standl.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type [US] no. 638936, collected at Cape San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico, March 23, 1911, by J. N. Rose (no. 16339). Holotypus, US 638936!; isotypus, NY!
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Description
Species Description - Stiffly branched microphyllous, drought-deciduous shrubs and treelets of rounded, or broad and depressed, flat-topped outline, 0.8-3(4) m, the coarse gray flexuous long-shoots armed at each node with a pair of straight divergent fuscous-castaneous woody stipules tapering from a swollen base into a vulnerant point, the new growth, except for often glabrous faces of the pallidly olivaceous lfts, densely minutely puberulent overall with fine spreading-ascending, gray or sordid hairs 0.1-0.2 mm, the primary lvs of long-shoots quickly deciduous (absent from most specimens), those associated with fls and pods fasciculate on hemispherical or short-cylindric brachyblasts, the small greenish white fls crowded into shortly pedunculate capitula or capituliform spikes, the massive woody fruits long-persistent and slowly maturing on the branches. Stipules of primary lvs 2-8 mm, long-persistent, those of fasciculate lvs much smaller, closely imbricate. Lf-formula of primary and fasciculate lvs alike i-ii/2-5; lf-stks 2-20 mm; petiole 2-10 x 0.2-0.5 mm, the interpinnal segment when present 5-12 mm; nectary between each pair of pinnae commonly stipitate, shallow-cupular 0.2-0.5 mm diam, in profile 0.2-0.7 mm tall, or in some lvs sessile or obsolescent; rachis of one or furthest pinna-pair 2.5-19(-24) mm, the longest interfoliolar segment 1.5-4.5 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.2-0.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm, finely wrinkled; lfts either equilong or subaccrescent distally, erratic in outline, oblong-obovate or -elliptic to suborbicular, semicordate at base, broadly obtuse or widely shallowly emarginate, the larger ones (4—)5.5-11 x (2.7-)3.2-6.5 mm, 1—1.9(—2.2) times as long as wide; primary venation of 3-5 nerves from pulvinule, the moderately displaced, straight or sinuous midrib commonly V-forked beyond middle and expiring or attenuate short of the plane margin and giving rise on each side to 1-3 randomly brochidodrome secondary nerves, the inner posterior primary produced more often to well beyond midblade, the outer ones progressively shorter, tertiary venules few and random, the whole venation immersed or weakly raised on upper face, bluntly prominulous beneath. Peduncles 1-3 per short-shoot, 3-8 mm; capitula ±17—35-fld, the axis 2-10 mm; bracts obovate-cuneate or spatulate 0.6-1 mm, persisting into anthesis; perianth 5- or the calyx 5-7-merous, the calyx minutely gray-puberulent at and above middle, the corolla so on lobes only; calyx campanulate, bluntly ribbed, 1.21.6 x 1.1-1.3 mm, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.2-0.25 mm; corolla 3-4.4 mm, the ovate erect lobes 0.9-1.6 x 0.7-0.9 mm; androecium 32-52-merous, 6.5-8.5 mm, the stemonozone 0.4—0.7 mm, the tube 2.1-4 mm, the discolored disc 0.2-0.3 mm tall; ovary at anthesis glabrous 1-1.3 mm, becoming papillate-puberulent after fertilization, the stipe 0.3-0.6 mm; style shorter than longest stamens, the stigma poriform. Pods solitary, sessile, in profile oblong or broad-linear, either straight or (most commonly) gently decurved, essentially like that of E. ebano in woody texture and fuscous or blackish coloration, (4-)6-10 x 2-3 cm, 8-10-seeded, 1.5-2 cm thick; dehiscence of E. ebano; seeds massive, 11-16 x 10-13 x 4-5 mm, like those of E. ebano in funicle, testa, and coloration, but crowded into narrower loculi and compressed contrary to the plane of the cotyledons, the pleurogram consequently on the two narrower (not the broader) faces; testa either smooth or pitted.
Distribution and Ecology - On desert hillsides, along washes, and in thin chaparral below 250 m, locally plentiful in Baja California Sur, especially but not exclusively on the Gulf slope and adjacent islands, and SE Baja California, from Bahia de los Angeles to the Cape (lat. 23°-29°N). —Map 47. — Fl. I-IV, the fruit persisting into XII.
Local Names and Uses - Palo fierro.
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Discussion
Ebenopsis confinis is readily distinguished over the greater part of its range by geminate pinnae of all leaves. The type collection, from Cabo San Lucas, is exceptional in having some leaves with two pairs of pinnae. The simplified foliage together with condensed capitula rather than amentiform spikes of flowers and the allopatric dispersal in desert environment amply differentiate it from the related E. ebano. The apparent displacement of the pleurogram from the broad face to the edge of the seed is due to deformation of the seed itself by confinement in a relatively narrow locule.
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Common Names
Palo fierro
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Distribution
Baja California Sur Mexico North America| Baja California Mexico North America|