Anneslia belizensis sensu Britton & Rose, 1928: 62. Calliandra belizensis sensu Standley, Publ. Field Columbian Mus., Bot. Ser. 8: 312. 1931; Standley & Steyermark, 1946: 20.

Coarsely microphyllidious, arborescent shrubs fertile when 2-9 m tall, with trunk attaining 1 dm dbh, stout straight terete long-shoots, and dense, conspicuously bracteate capitula sessile on thatched or incipiently caulescent brachyblasts axillary to the furthest or to the two furthest lvs of homotinous long-shoots, often appearing terminal, the young stems and ventral face of lf-axes loosely pilosulous with hairs <0.5 mm, the foliage bicolored, the firm plane, facially glabrous, sometimes ciliolate lfts dark and lustrous on upper face, paler dull-olivaceous or cinnamon-brown beneath. Stipules ovate-triangular or broad-lanceolate 4—12 mm, weakly striate, early stramineous, dry and eroded, glabrous externally, persistent. Lf-formula (i—)ii/( 16—) 18—29, some lvs always with bijugate pinnae; lf-stks of longer lvs (11-) 14—43 mm, the petiole (5-)7-23 mm, at middle 0.7-1.2 mm diam, the one interpinnal segment 6-20 mm; rachis of longer pinnae 6-9 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 2.2-5 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.4—0.7 x 0.6-0.7 mm, coarsely wrinkled; lfts subequilong except at extreme ends of rachis, the blades linear-lanceolate from obtusely auriculate base, deltately acute or acuminulate, straight or almost so, the larger ones 8-18 x 2-3.7 mm, 3.9- 4.6(-4.8) times as long as wide; venation externally faint, the weak midrib displaced to divide blade ±1:2, the secondary venulation visible only in lfts dried when young. Peduncles essentially 0, the densely or loosely imbricate, efoliate stipules of brachyblasts passing directly into similar floral bracts, the capitula prior to anthesis conelike; floral bracts resembling stipules in form and texture, lanceolate or ovate- elliptic 0.5-9.5 x 1.4-4.2 mm, strongly striate at base, weakly so distally, thinly pilosulous near apex, persistent; fls homomorphic, sessile or almost so, the perianth 5-merous, the calyx sharply multistriate, the corolla not or scarcely so, both thinly pilosulous externally in distal 1/4-1/3; calyx deeply campanulate- ellipsoid 4.5-7.2 x 2.6—3.3 mm, the broadly obovate- semicircular teeth (0.6—)1.1—1.8 mm; corolla 9-13 mm, the ovate lobes 2-3.2 mm; androecium 23-29- merous, ±4-4.8 cm, the tube (5-)6-10 mm, the indurate stemonozone 2.4—3.2 mm, the tassel white; intrastaminal nectary 0; ovary sessile, thinly pilosulous. Pods (few seen) erect, in profile ±8.5-10 x 1-1.2 cm, 4-7-seeded, the sutural ribs in dorsal view 2.3-3 mm wide, the stiff brittle valves bullate over seed-cavities, dark brown, gray-pilosulous overall; seeds not seen.

In tropical evergreen forest, either in the understory or in sunny openings and on roadsides, mostly on limestone, below 150 m, best known from about the common boundary-point of Mexico (s. Quintana Roo), Guatemala (Petén), and Belize (Corozal and Orange Walk districts), and collected once on Cozumel I. in n. Quintana Roo. — Map 6. — Fl. XI-XII(-?). — Capulin de corona; barba de viejo.

Notable features of C. belizensis are faintly veined leaflets, capitula subsessile on often subterminal brachyblasts, large papery floral bracts, and white androecial tassel.