Cojoba sophorocarpa
Rupert C. Barneby
7. Cojoba sophorocarpa (Bentham) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 31. 1928. Pithecolobium sophoro- carpum Bentham in Bentham & Hooker, Gen. Pl. 1: 598. 1865. — . . ex America centrali." — Lectotypus (L. Rico, Kew Bull. 46: 511. 1991), labeled "In monte Pantasmo in Segovia [Nicaragua], Januario legi 1848. Oersted s.n.", K!. — Feuilleea sophorocarpa (Bentham) O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 189. 1891.
Pithecolobium jinotegense Standley & L. O. Williams, Ceiba 3: 115. 1952. — "Nicaragua: Dept. Jinotega: Finca Aventina, sierra al este de Jinotega . . Jun 23, 1947, Paul C. Standley 10015." — Holotypus, F 1257065!.
Cojoba haematoloba L. Rico, Kew Bull. 46: 507, fig. 4A-E. 1991. — "Mexico, P. Tenorio, O. Téllez & P. Magaña 5586." — Holotypus, K!; isotypi, labeled "El Azufre 16 km al S de Teapa, Mpio. de Teapa," AAU n.v., BM n.v., CR n.v., MEXU!, MO 3896929!, NY!.
Pithecellobium sophorocarpum sensu Zamora, 1991: 138.
Shrubs or trees to 10 m tall, the vegetative buds densely red-brown-velvety with erect-ascending hairs 0.2-0.3 mm long, the stems, dorsal side of lf-axes, and peduncles similarly puberulent but with shorter hairs commonly blond instead of red, the lvs bicolored, the thin-textured lfts dark-green sublustrous above, paler beneath, glabrous save for the sometimes ciliate margins and pilosulous midvein on upper surface, the capitula of white flowers solitary, either axillary to coeval leaves and immersed in foliage, or at efoliate nodes of annotinous branches, or cauliflorous on old wood. Stipules fugacious, those at inception of leaves asymmetrically triangular, deltoid, or linear-cylindric 0.75-3.5 mm. Lf-formula ii-v/6-15, the semiterete or somewhat dorsiventrally flattened lf-stk 8.5-30 cm, the petiole 2.4-8.8 cm, the interpinnal segments 2-5.5 cm, the lf-stk charged between all pinna-pairs with a short-stalked-cupular or -crateriform, or mounded-poriform or -ellipsoid nectary, the larger of these 0.75-2 mm diam, similar but smaller ones between first and furthest lft-pairs, or between nearly all lft-pairs, or lacking; pinnae subequilong or distally accrescent, the longer ones 8.5—25 cm, the interfoliolar segments 7-25 mm, with paraphyllidia to 0.75 mm, or sometimes with tufts of hair on pulvinus; lft-pulvinules broadly elliptic to falcately elliptic in outline, 0.75-2 mm on long axis, coarsely wrinkled, glabrous or puberulent along midrib, the long axis inserted more or less obliquely but parallel to the plane of the lf and subcontiguous with opposite pulvinus the whole length, or basiscopically contiguous and acroscopically dorsally displaced; lfts asymmetrically ovate-elliptic, lance-ovate, or larger ones lance- rhombic from an inequilaterally semicordate base, subequilong, or distally accrescent, the larger ones (excluding terminal pair) 2.4-6 x 0.9-3.1 cm, 1.3-3.2 times longer than broad, the apex acuminate and minutely apiculate, widely acute or deltate-acute, the venation pinnate-palmate, the subcentric or somewhat forwardly displaced midrib faintly or strongly distally falcate, the largest innermost of the 2-4 posterior nerves expiring near or well short of midblade, the secondary and tertiary venation faint but visible on upper surface, prominulous on lower. Peduncles 1 or 2 per node, often 3-5 at inception in lf-axils, but all but 2 apparently abortive, equilong 1.8-13 cm, a thickened bracteole to 2 mm long present about 3/4 way up or lacking; capitula 46—126(!)-fld, the sessile homomorphic fls spreading in all directions from a globose or obovoid receptacle 2-4 mm diam or to 7 mm long; bracts slightly dimorphic, the proximal ones obtriangular 0.75-1 mm, distally becoming linear- spatulate, 1-1.25 mm, all distally somewhat thickened and densely red-brown-puberulent, all shorter than the fl-buds, deciduous or rarely some subpersistent under fruit; perianth (5-)6-7-merous, thin-papery plurinerved, glabrous save for red ascending-erect hairs on lobes of calyx and shorter blond-red hairs on corolla-lobes, the fls when dried often deceptively appearing minutely canescent due to red-splotchy epidermis; calyx cylindric, 2.5-5 x 1-2 mm, the unequal lobes elliptic-acute 0.2-0.6 mm; corolla very narrowly campanulate or cylindric-funnelform 8-18 mm, the ascending-erect, unequal lance-triangular to deltate lobes 0.75-1.75 mm, internally thickened and more or less cucullate; androecium 36-66-merous, 12-28 mm, the stemonozone 1.5-2.5 mm, the tube (6-) 10-20 mm, shorter than, equal to, or much longer than corolla, coarse-thickened but lacking a nectarial disc; ovary subsessile ellipsoid, sometimes somewhat truncate, minutely puberulent at apex; style much surpassing stamens, stigma not seen. Pods 1-2 per capitulum, (sub)moniliform or cylindric from a contracted stipelike base, straight or somewhat falcate, 4-15.5 cm long, 0.7-1.2 cm broad over seed-cavities, the bright red evenulose valves inconsistently wrinkled, internally lustrous pale-tan; dehiscence through both sutures, the valves coiling and/or twisting; seeds (sub)contiguous and mutually compressed-ovoid, or widely spaced and ellipsoid, 14—20 x 9-11 x 7-10 mm, not seen to persist on the funicle, when fully mature the black chartaceous seed-coat not particularly fragile, closely investing the dark-greenish embryo.
In cloud forest and swamp forest, 0-1400 m, from the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Meseta de Chiapas in Chiapas and immediately adj. Tabasco, Mexico, S into Panama; not known from Belize, El Salvador, or interior Honduras. — Map 18. — Fl. XI-IV; fruiting soon after, the ft. apparently long-persistent on the tree. — Muk’ul ib’te (Mexico, Tzeltal).
In the northern part of the distribution, leaves of C. sophorocarpa have a nectary on the petiole as well as between the pinna-pairs, but none between the first leaflet-pair. The leaflets of these specimens average 1.3-2.5 times longer than broad, and the flowers are 13 mm long. These were separated as C. haemato- loba L. Rico. South of Mexico, individuals lack the nectary on the petiole but have one between the first pair of leaflets. The leaflets of these are 2.5-3.2 times longer than broad, and the flowers are (12-) 13-18 mm long. These belong to C. sophorocarpa sensu stricto. In Nicaragua and Guatemala, so many exceptional or intermediate collections are known that even varietal status for C. haematoloba is unjustified.
References: [Article] Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1997. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: A generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part II.