Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra trinervia var. pilosifolia

Rupert C. Barneby

68d. Calliandra trinervia Bentham var. pilosifolia (Cowan) Barneby, stat. nov. C. pilosifolia Cowan, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 10: 142. 1958. — "B. Maguire & L. Politi 28629 ... along trail from Base Camp, 125 m, Cerro Sipapo, Terr. [Federal] Amazonas, Venezuela, Jan 25, 1949." — Holotypus, NY!; isotypus, K!; paratypi, Maguire & Politi 28721, Maguire & al. 37510, both NY!.

Trees ±4-5 m, with habit, foliage, perianth and androecium of the species, but the young stems and lf-axes densely pilose with straight, vertically erect hairs to 0.8-2 mm, the lfts ciliate on margin and on principal nerves of hypophyllum. Stipules of primary lvs lanceolate 4-11 (-22) x 1-2 mm, striate, glabrous dorsally. Petioles 3-20 mm; lfts 2, 3, or 4 per pinna, the proximal pair opposite, the distal pair 7.5-13 x 3-5.5 cm. Calyx glabrous; corolla tube either glabrous or thinly strigulose; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel 0.4-0.7 mm; calyx 2.2-4 x 1-1.7 mm; corolla 9.5-14 mm; androecium 16-26-merous, 30-52 mm, the tube 12-22 mm, the tassel either crimson or (rarely) white; CENTRAL FL(S): androecial tube 28-34 mm, expanded at orifice to 3.5-4.5 mm diam; disc 0.4-0.8 x 0.5-0.6 mm. Pod not seen.

In wet forest or at forest margins, in Venezuela on terra firme at 125-600 m, on the upper Rio Negro in Brazil in flooded riparian forest, of local dispersal on and near the Orinoco-Negro divide in s.w. Amazonas, Venezuela (C. Sipapo and Casiquiare region) and n.w. Amazonas, Brazil (within lat. 3°N and 0°30'S). — Map 31. — Fl. in Venezuela I—II, in Brazil VII, the whole season not established.

The pilose indumentum of C. pilosifolia is its single feature consistently foreign to C. trinervia sens. lat. and falls short of a specific character. Lanceolate stipules, much exaggerated in Maguire 28421 (NY), are a noteworthy feature of the variety, but occur also in some forms of glabrate var. trinervia. The flowers of the Venezuelan type and paratypes of C. pilosifolia are relatively large, but not larger than those of all C. trinervia. A smaller-flowered variant has been distinguished in manuscript as C. julianii Brunner & Forero.

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.