Calliandra Species Pages
Calliandra riparia
Rupert C. Barneby
41. Calliandra riparia Pittier, Arb. Arbust Venez. 6-8: 80.1927 (Aug-Sep); & Arb. Legum. 1 (Mimosaceae): 10. 1927 (Dec). — “[VENEZUELA.] Riberas del Río San Juan de los Morros, Aragua; flores y frutos Abril 9.1927 (Pittier 12309...).” — Holotypus, VEN n.v.; isotypi, G!, NY!. — Mistakenly equated by Woodson and Schery (1950: 259) with C. magdalenae. Fig. 7
C. schultzei Harms, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 24: 209. 1928. — “Colombia: Santa Marta, Río Pedras, Nordfuss der Sierra Nevada... (Arnold Schultze no. 553; 7.IX.1926).” — Holotypus, †B = F Neg. 1255 + clastotypus (If, fls), F!, duplicate photo, NY!. — Mistakenly equated by Woodson and Schery (1950: 259) with C. magdalenae.
C. schultzei sensu Britton & Killip, 1936: 135.
C. surinamensis sensu Prance & Silva, Arvores de Manáus 156, fotos 73,74. 1975; Howard, 1988: 351; Pauwels, Nza-yiluN’ti t. 135(1-3). 1993.
Arborescent shrubs 1.5-6 m with pallid plagiotropic branches and virgate long-shoots, at maturity flat-topped or leaning, the young branches, peduncles and especially the lf-axes pilosulous with either erect or incurved, gray or sordid hairs 0.2-0.7 mm, the firm green lfts not strongly bicolored, facially glabrous but often thinly ciliolate, the lvs relatively insensitive (often fully expanded in pressed specimens), the capitula arising singly or exceptionally geminate either directly from primary lf-axils or from very short, often foliate axillary brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules subtending primary lvs triangular-lanceolate to lance-acuminate or -caudate (3-)4—11 x 1.2-2.7 mm, striately 9-17-nerved, becoming dry, pallid, and brittle but not spontaneously disjointing. Lf-formula i/7—11(—13); petioles 4—15(—18) mm, at middle 0.4-0.85(-l) mm diam; pinna-rachises (2.5-)3-6(-6.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (2.5-)3-7 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.4-0.8(-0.9) x 0.5-0.8 mm, wrinkled; lfts broad-linear or linear-elliptic from semicordate base, straight or almost so, at apex triangular-apiculate or mucronulate, the longer ones 12-22 x (2.2-)2.5-4.6(-6) mm, (3.5-)3.8-5.7(-6.5) times as long as wide, the terminal pair no longer than the penultimate; venation palmate-pinnate, the straight midrib dividing blade ±1:1.5-1.75, the inner posterior primary nerve produced nearly to or shortly beyond mid-blade, the 1-2 (-3) outer ones progressively much shorter, the secondary and reticular venules sharply finely prominulous on both faces. Peduncles (9-)10-32(-36) mm, 1-2-bracteate near or below middle or sometimes ebracteate; capitula 12—14(—?)-fld, the clavate receptacle ±2-3 mm (sometimes one fl downwardly displaced onto peduncle), bracts subulate or linear 0.8-2.2 mm,
3-4-nerved, persistent; fls at full anthesis all strongly ascending, subhomomorphic as to perianth but the androecia varying from almost homomorphic to strongly differentiated in length and amplitude of staminal tube; pedicels externally discolored 0.1-0.8 x (0.3-)0.4— 0.8 mm; perianth glabrous, the calyx sharply finely striate, the corolla not or faintly so; androecial tube of peripheral fls as long as or ± twice as long as the the corolla, that of 1-several central fls often but not always much longer than that of peripheral fls and expanded at apex, the tube of all pallid or faintly pink-tinged, the tassel pink or carmine; calyx 2-2.6(-2.8) x 0.9-1.5 mm, the teeth (often unequal) 0.25-0.6 mm; corolla either 4- or 5-merous, greenish or whitish, (5-)5.5-8 mm, the ovate-deltate lobes 1.1-2.3 mm; androecium 12-20-merous, 31-42 mm, the tube of peripheral fls 6.5-11 mm, that of central fls 14—31 mm, expanded at orifice to 3-5 mm diam; ovary at anthesis glabrous. Pods stiffly ascending toward vertical, (5-) 6-8 x 0.8-1.1 cm, glabrous or ciliolate along sutures, the valves stiffly leathery, obliquely or subhorizontally venulose, the inner face of the sutures exposed by dehiscence 0.9-1.1 mm wide; seeds in broad view 7.3-9.8 x 4.5-5.4 mm, the pale brown, often dusky-speckled testa lacking pleurogram.
Native in semideciduous or thin evergreen woodland, often colonial on rocky river banks, 50-750 m, scattered in the Orinoco valley and Maracaibo basin in Venezuela e. to the Pakaraima mountains in adj. Guyana, w. into n. Colombia and adj. Panama; cultivated and locally naturalized up to 1330 m in Central America, Amazonian Brazil and Bolivia, e. Brazil, the Bahamas and Antilles, and in gardens and botanical gardens in s.-e. Asia and Hawai’i. — Map 24. — Fl. nearly yearlong, except when drought-stricken. — Canasta mexicana (Puerto Rico, the adjective signifying foreign rather than Mexican).
In 70 years since its discovery C. riparia has acquired no substantial identity in the literature, but is nevertheless one of the commoner unijugate calliandras in seasonally dry parts of northern South America; moreover it is widely cultivated both in its native range and elsewhere, but where cultivated passing as C. surinamensis. It does indeed resemble forms of polymorphic C. surinamensis that have about 7-11 pairs of leaflets per pinna, but these leaflets are linear or linear-elliptic rather than rhombic or oblong. The hard seed-coat, lacking pleurogram, provides the decisive differential character.
The pre-colonial distribution of C. riparia, before it was taken into parks and gardens, seems to have centered in the Orinoco valley between Zulia and Bolívar, reaching the Pakaraima mountains in Guyana and extending westward through the Caribbean lowlands of Colombia to Chocó and to eastern Panama. Beyond this range there are records from Trinidad, Atlantic Guyana, one each from Honduras and Costa Rica, many from inter-Andean Colombia, and from further afield, all probably or certainly taken from ornamental plantings. As native status is seldom noted on herbarium labels, it is not possible to distinguish between aboriginal and subsequent status, even in Venezuela. The accompanying map records all known occurrences of C. riparia in the Americas.
The remarks by Skutch (Brenesia 37: 141-143, fig. 1) on floral dimorphism and phenology of C. surinamensis cultivated at El General, Costa Rica, are perhaps applicable to C. riparia.
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.Multimedia:
