Calliandra Species Pages
Calliandra pittieri
Rupert C. Barneby
1. Calliandra pittieri Standley, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 18: 102. 1916.—Typus infra sub var. pittieri indicatur.
Elaborately microphyll, arborescent shrubs and trees 2-12(—15, -20) m tall with plagiotropic branches and consequently low-convex or flattened crown (often leaning over water), the young branches and lf-axes appressed-puberulent or pilosulous with either gray or brownish hairs to 0.15-0.7 mm, the crowded, firm, facially glabrous but often thinly ciliolate lfts bicolored, when mature lustrous olivaceous above, paler dull beneath, the hemispherical capitula arising singly, or geminate, or rarely 3 together from either a) nodes of either foliate or efoliate brachyblasts axillary to coeval primary lvs, or b) directly from lf-axils of contemporary long-shoots; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules narrowly to broadly lanceolate or narrowly ovate 2-10 x 0.8—4 mm, striately 7-11-nerved when young, thickened dry in age, either glabrous or pilosulous dorsally, deciduous. Lf-formula (vi-)vii-xiii/ (35-)37-62(-70); lf-stks randomly variable in vigor, (4-)5-14(-15) cm, the petiole, including pulvinus, (4-)5-30(-33) mm, at middle 0.6-1.2 mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments (1.5—)2—14(—25) mm, the ventral groove either continuous or weakly bridged; pinnae usually a little accrescent distally, sometimes subequilong, the rachis of longer ones (2.5-)3-9(-14) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.3-1.4(-2.2) mm; lft-pulvinules 0.1-0.35 mm; lft-blades linear or linear-lanceolate from obtusangulate or shortly obtusely auriculate base, straight or incipiently falcate, acute or subobtuse, the larger ones (2.7—)3—10.5(—13) x (0.5-)0.6-2.4(-2.8) mm, (4.3-)4.8-6.6 times as long as wide; midrib subcentric or forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:1.5—2, either simple or (in larger lfts) giving rise to faint secondary venules. Peduncles 1.5-6(-7.5) cm, often appearing ebracteate, but the peduncular bract inserted close under the capitulum and scarcely distinguishable from floral bracts; capitula 14—28-fld, the receptacle, including short terminal pedestal, 2-4 mm diam; bracts oblong or subulate 0.6-1.4 mm, tardily deciduous; fls (always, so far as known) heteromorphic, the perianth of all 5-merous, brownish-puberulent or glabrous, the calyx 5-nerved or almost nerveless, the corolla also externally nerveless; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel broadly turbinate, or drum-shaped, sometimes as wide as base of calyx but then differentiated by discoloration (and solid in longitudinal section) 0.3-2(-2.3) x 0.4-0.9 mm; calyx 1.3-3.5 mm, the subulate or de- pressed-deltate teeth 0.3-0.6 mm; corolla (5-)5.5-9 (-9.5) mm, the ovate lobes (1.1—)1.4—3.2 mm; androecium 12-26(-28)-merous, (2.7-)3-6.2 cm, the tube (2-)3.6-9 mm, the stemonozone 0.9-2.3 mm, the tassel usually pallid at base and crimson distally, rarely crimson throughout; TERMINAL FL(s): perianth nearly of the peripheral fls but usually broader; androecial tube broadly cylindric, ± twice as long as corolla. Pods 7—13(—18) cm, in Colombia mostly 1-1.25 cm, in Venezuela 1-1.8 cm, in Ecuador to 1.6 cm wide, when well fertilized 5-8-seeded, the brown woody valves coarsely densely cross-venulose, minutely or densely puberulent; seeds discoid 9-13 x 10 mm, the papery testa dull brown, pleurogram 0.
References: [Article] Barneby, Rupert C. 1998. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: A generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part III. Calliandra. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-223.