Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra trinervia var. paniculans

Rupert C. Barneby

68e.  Calliandra trinervia Bentham var. paniculans Barneby, var. nov., ab aliis speciei varietatibus inflorescentiae tantum forma diversa, capitulis axi florigero efoliato e foliorum primariorum axillo et nonnumquam terminali producto pseudoracemoso-paniculatis (nec e brachyblastis brevissimis imbricatim stipulatis orientibus) praestans. — Peru. Depto. Amazonas, prov. Bagua: rain forest along Río Santiago 3-5 km above mouth, 250-300 m, 8-13 Oct 1962 (fl), J. J. Wurdack 2168. — Holotypus, NY.

Trees 6-28(-35) m, sometimes precociously flowering at 4-5 m, the young stems and the lf- and inflorescence-axes strigulose with incurved or subappressed hairs <0.45 mm, the lfts glabrous. Stipules obtusely deltate or ovate-triangular 1.5-3.5 x 1.3-3 mm, striate. Petioles 1-3 cm; lfts 2, 3, 4 per pinna, the small proximal pair, when both present, not exactly opposite, the distal pair 8—16(-17.5) x (2.5-)3.2-6.5 cm, 2.1-3.2 times as long as wide. Axis of florigerous brachyblasts 1-5 cm; PERIPHERAL FLS: calyx 2.3-3.3 x 1.6-2.2 mm, the teeth 0.3-0.6(-0.8) mm; corolla 5.8-8.2 mm; androecium (10-)12-16(-20)-merous, 34-44(-50) mm, the pallid tube (5.5-)7—11 mm, as long as corolla and to 3.5 mm longer, the tassel pink-carmine. Pods 10-18 x 1.2—2 cm.

In rain forest, often along river banks, surviving disturbance, above (200-)250 m and ascending in Ecuador to 1400(-1500) m, interruptedly dispersed along e. foothills and intermontane valleys of the Andes between 1°30'N in Colombia and 16°S in Bolivia, most common in Ecuador and n. Peru. — Map 31. — Fl. Ill, V, VIII-XII. — Machete vaina; urcu shimbillo (Peru).

At full anthesis var. paniculans is readily distinguished from vicariant var. trinervia by its pseudoracemose inflorescence, but less so when immature or in fruit. It has often passed in herbaria as allopatric (Colombian) C. carbonaria, but differs not only in inflorescence architecture but also in bicolored, only distally carmine, not uniformly red androecium.

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.