C. bella sensu Bentham, 1875: 555; 1876: 426; Lewis, 1987: 171.

Slender, amply multifoliolate, arborescent shrubs flowering when 2-6 m tall, the trunk attaining 8(-?) cm diam, the young stems and the lf- and inflores- cence-axes variably pilosulous with brownish or sordid-gray hairs to 0.3-0.7 mm, the narrow imbricate lfts glabrous except for random cilia, lustrous dark green above, pallid dull beneath, the long-pedunculate capituliform racemes of usually bronze-, rarely pallid- silky fls arising solitary or geminate, either a) directly from distal lf-axils, or b) from short axillary, bracteate but efoliate lateral branchlets, these often by suppression of distal primary lvs forming a shortly exserted compound panicle; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules of primary lvs linear or linear-lanceolate 3-7.5 x 0.7-1.7 mm, indistinctly ±5-nerved, deciduous, those of floriferous lateral axes triangular-acuminate and proportionately broader, or lanceolate, exceptionally to 18 x 3 mm, persistent. Lf-formula (v-)vii-xiii(-xiv)/40-64; lf-stks of larger lvs (7—)8—15 cm, the petiole including pulvinus (8-) 12-26 mm, the longer interpinnal segments 8-19 mm, the ventral groove bridged at insertion of each pinna-pair; pinnae commonly decrescent proximally, the further ones subequilong or erratically longer and shorter, the rachis of longer ones (5.5-) 6-9.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.7-1.6 mm; lft-pulvinules either pallid or nigrescent, in dorsal view 0.2-0.5 mm; lfts subequilong except near base of rachis, the blades linear from deltately auriculate base, straight or incipiently sigmoid, porrectly deltate-apiculate, the larger ones 5-9.5 x 0.8-1.9 mm, 5-6.3 times as long as wide; venation simple or nearly so, the slender, dorsally prominulous midrib forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:2, further venulation immersed or barely perceptible, but the low-convex ventral face of blade sometimes finely rugulose. Peduncles (when paired of unequal length) to (2-)2.5-7.5 cm, all charged, mostly above middle, with an elliptic bracteole 1.5-3(-4) mm; capitula 14- 28-fld, prior to anthesis subglobose becoming at full anthesis oblong-ellipsoid, the receptacle at and after full anthesis 4—11 mm; bracts subtending proximal fls linear or linear-spatulate 1.2-2 mm, caducous, those of further fls minute or wanting; fls essentially homomorphic, the terminal one sometimes a trifle larger but otherwise unmodified; pedicel of lowest fls 0.7-2.4 x 0.6-1.5 mm, when very short drum-shaped, not well differentiated externally from calyx proper; perianth appressed-silky or the calyx tube only minutely so or glabrate, the corolla densely so, the calyx delicately 15-20-nerved, the vesture usually golden-bronze, sometimes whitish; calyx campanulate 2-4.3 x 2-3.6 mm, the teeth either depressed-deltate or ovate 0.4-1 mm; corolla 7-9 mm, 2.1-3.5 times as long as calyx, the ovate lobes 2.8-3.7 mm; androecium 26-44-mer- ous, opening white, sometimes fading pinkish, when fully expanded 3.5—5.8 cm, the thickened stemonozone 1.8-2.5 mm, the tube 3.5-6 mm; nectarial disc 0; ovary at anthesis either glabrous, or puberulent at base of style. Pods (little known) ±7-10 x 0.8-0.9 cm, the sutural ribs in dorsal view 2-3 mm wide, the recessed valves transversely venulose, the whole densely brown-pilosulous overall; ripe seeds unknown.

In moist lowland forest and restinga, locally plentiful, often in secondary growth and along roadsides, collected frequently along and near the coast of Bahia in lat. 13°30^/-16°30'S, but known by one collection from mata de cipó in middle Pardo valley near 15°30^/S and by three from campos gerais at 600-1000 m on upper forks of rio Paraguaçú in lat. 12°45'-13°45'S.

-Map 15. — Esponja; pincel. — Visited by hummingbirds (Lewis 2025, NY).