C. aeschynomenoides sensu Renvoize, 1981: 71, fig. 2(13); Lewis, 1987: 170.

Slender ("esguio") shrubs with pliant branches, attaining 2 m, the young stems, lf-axes, and units of inflorescence thinly loosely pilose or strigulose with fine flexuous white hairs to ±0.7-1 mm, the small, relatively simple lvs bicolored, the plane thin-textured lfts dull olivaceous glabrous above, paler pilose beneath, the capitula shortly pedunculate in the lower lf-axils of shortly caulescent branchlets lateral to and coeval with hornotinous long-shoots; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules lance-ovate (1.5-) 2.5-5.5 mm, early dry stramineous, striately nerved, persistent. Lf-formula i(—iv)/5—12(—13); petioles 1.5-5 x 0.4-0.5 mm; rachis of longer pinnae 12-28(-35) mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 2-3 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.2-0.4 mm; lfts accrescent distally, the blades obliquely oblong-elliptic from broadly shortly auriculate base, either obtuse or obtuse apiculate, the larger ones 6.5-10.5 x 2.3-4 mm, 2.5-3 times as long as wide; venation of 3 primary nerves, the gently incurved midrib forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:2, 3-5-branched on each side upward from mid-blade, the inner posterior nerve incurved-ascending to near mid-blade, the much shorter outer one subhorizontally divaricate, the secondary nerves Y-forked within the margin, scarcely or not camptodrome. Peduncles 2-5 cm, 1-bracteate close under first fl, the bract ovate ±2-3 mm, striate like stipules; capitula hemispherical 3—15-fld, the receptacle ±1 mm; floral bracts narrowly ovate 2-3 mm, faintly striate, tardily deciduous; fls homomorphic, sessile, the 5-merous perianth thinly minutely pilosulous; calyx campanulate 2-2.2 x 1.2-1.5 mm, the tube faintly striate-nerved, the teeth 0.5-0.8 mm; corolla 4.2-4.4 mm, the narrowly ovate lobes 1.2-1.4 mm; androecium 12-16-merous, to 23 mm, the stemonozone 0.8 mm, the very slender tube ±9 mm, the tassel united into fascicles, the stemonozone not internally thickened, intrastaminal nectary 0. Pod (one seen) narrowly oblanceolate 6 x 0.7 cm, 7-seeded, thinly finely pilosulous, the sutures in dorsal view <2 mm wide, the leathery valves bullately distended over seed-locules, finely venulose; seeds unknown.

In caatinga on sandy substrates, known precisely only from centr. Pernambuco (Ibimirim) and n.-e. Bahia (Reserva Ecolôgica do Raso da Catarina). — Fl. VI-?. — Forrageira.

Among the calliandras of eastern tropical Brazil with geminate pinnae C. aeschynomenoides is notable for relatively few and large leaflets. Its "flowers" have been described by collectors as either red or pink. The species was described from specimens collected somewhere in Bahia by (or for) J. S. Blanchet, before 1856, and not seen again until 1982, when rediscovered in lower São Francisco valley by L. S. Guedes. The one record from Pernambuco (Ataide 587, COL) dates to 1985.