C. affinis Pittier, Arb. Legum. 1: 51. 1927. — "Area desconocida, especie aparentemente propia del Llano." — Lectotypus (Britton in adnot., NY): Pittier 12529, collected near Dos Caminos, Guárico, Venezuela, 12 Sep 1927. —Lectotypus, VEN n.v.; isotypus, NY!. — A second gathering, Pittier 12224 (NY!), collected 10 Oct 1926 between Ortiz and Guárico bridge, may have contributed to the protologue.

C. cruegerii sensu Bentham, 1875: 553; R. O. Williams, Fl. Trin. Tob. 1(4): 299. 1931.

Arborescent shrubs (l-)2-6 m with stout stiff, vertically fissured, gray or pallid, plagiotropic long-shoots and densely thatched short-shoots developing from primary lf-axils, the young growth and all lf-axes puberulent or finely silky-pilose with white hairs to 0.3-1.4 mm, the narrow imbricate lfts discolorous, lustrous dark-olivaceous above, paler duller beneath, facially glabrous but often randomly cili(ol)ate, the sessile or very shortly pedunculate capitula arising singly from axils of efoliate stipules on homotinous or older brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules papery stramineous, lanceolate or triangular-lanceolate 3-9 mm, striately nerved, commonly glabrous dorsally but sometimes micropuberulent, persistent even though frayed or broken in age. Lf-formula iii-v/ 32-52; lf- stks of larger lvs 2.5-4.5 cm, the petiole including scarcely swollen pulvinus 2-9 mm, at middle 0.45-0.7(-0.9) mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments 5-11 (-12) mm, the shallow ventral groove bridged; pinnae either regularly accrescent distally or of randomly unequal lengths, the longer ones 2.5-5(-5.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.5-1.1 mm; lft-pulvinules ±0.1 x 0.2-0.3 mm; lfts abruptly decrescent at base of rachis and more gradually so upward from near mid-rachis, the blades linear or linear-lanceolate from either obtusangulate or shortly auriculate base, acute, straight or gently falcate, the longer ones (3-)4.2-7(-9) x 0.6-1.1 (-1.4) mm, (4.3-)4.5-6.5(-6.7) times as long as wide; midrib filiform, displaced to divide blade 1:1.5-2, pinnately few- branched, the 1-2 posterior primary nerves extremely slender or barely perceptible, the inner one expiring well short of mid-blade. Peduncles 0-3 mm bracteate, the subscarious bracts 1-2, ovate 1-1.5 mm, often concealed by stipules or by the lower fls of the capitulum; capitula ±11-21-fid, the fls ideally (but in fact not always) dimorphic, the peripheral ones a trifle accrescent upward, the terminal one (sometimes deformed, or abortive) larger and with long-exserted trumpetshaped androecium, the subglobose or claviform receptacle <2 mm; floral bracts ovate 1-1.5 mm, persistent; pedicels 0-0.45 mm; perianth submembranous, the sharply striate calyx glabrous externally, sometimes micro-ciliolate, the whitish corolla thinly silky- pilosulous with wavy hairs; PERIPHERAL FLS: calyx campanulate 1.8-2.9 x 1.1—1.8(—2) mm, the obtuse or obtusely deltate teeth 0.3-0.55 mm; corolla 4.3-6.2 mm, the ovate lobes 1.4—2 mm; androecium 16-25- merous, 17-24 mm, the stemonozone ±0.5 mm, the tube 3-6 mm, the tassel whitish proximally, pink distally; no intrastaminal nectary; TERMINAL FL: calyx scarcely longer but broader than that of peripheral fls; corolla 6-7 mm; androecial tube white ±10-12 mm, trumpet-shaped, 2-2.5 mm diam at orifice; intrastaminal nectary cupular 0.5-0.9 mm; ovary at anthesis glabrous. Pods 5-6.5 x 0.6-0.8 cm, thinly sub- appressed-pilosulous overall, the dilated rim in dorsal view 2 mm wide, the recessed lignescent valves low- bullate over seeds, obliquely venulose; seeds up to 8 per pod, ellipsoid 5.5 x 2.5-3 mm, dusky-mottled, the testa finely pleurogrammic.

In dry forest, xeromorphic scrub, and savanna, 0-400 m, locally plentiful on the Caribbean coast and llanos of n. and centr. Venezuela, from n. Falcón and n. Guárico e to Isla Sta. Margarita and the Paria peninsula, s. to the Orinoco valley in n.-w. Bolivar and in adj. Apure and Amazonas, thence e. across the Dragon’s Mouth to Chacachacare and Monos islands in n.-w. Trinidad; isolated in savanna of n. state of Roraima, Brazil (rio Surumú). — Map 3. — Fl. III-V, VIII-XII, perhaps intermittently following rains.