Narratives – The Barneby Catalogue

Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra angustifolia

74. Calliandra angustifolia Spruce ex Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 30: 539. 1875. — "... Eastern Peru, very abundant on the banks of the Huallaga and the Mayo rivers, Spruce n. 4466." — Holotypus, K (hb. Benth.)! = NY Neg. 1993; isotypi, +B = F Neg. 1227'., G!, K (hb. Hook.)!, OXF!. — Feuilleea angustifolia O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 187. 1891.

C. subnervosa Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 30: 540. 1875 — "[Ecuador.] Guayaquil, Tafalla." — Holotypus, G-BOISS ex hb. Pavon. (in 3 folders, annotated by Bentham)!; isotypi, BM!, MA = G photo 29409!, fragm. ex Hb. MA, F!. — Feuilleea subnervosa O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 189. 1891. — Note that the "stipels" described in the protologue are the dilated striate terminal appendages of lf-stks.

C. sodiroi Harms, Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni Veg. 17: 87. 1921. — "Ecuador: Prov. Chimborazo, Paramo Navag (A. Sodiro no. 392 — Aug. 1891)." — Holotypus,†B = F Neg. 1260!; clastotypus (fragm.), F!.

C. stricta Rusby, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 255. 1927. — "[Bolivia.] San BuenaVentura, Beni, 1000 feet, M. Cardenas, December 1, 1921 (no. 1739)." — Holotypus, NY!. — San Buena Ventura = present Rurrenabaque.

Macrophyllidious arborescent shrubs with geotropic or horizontal branches and notably dense tough wood, sometimes fertile when 1 m tall or less but potentially attaining 4(-6) m with trunk to 2 dm dbh, the year’s growth consisting of simple virgate barren branches and many, often crowded floriferous short- shoots, the young stems and most lf-axes and peduncles sordidly pilosulous with fine wavy or incurved hairs to 0.2-0.7 mm, often glabrous in age, the lfts firm bicolored, ± lustrous, facially glabrous, often microciliolate, the incipiently umbelliform capitula arising singly from nodes of either foliate or elaminate brachyblasts axillary to hornotinous lvs; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules lanceolate, lance-attenuate, or deltate-acuminate, from ± dilated, subcordate base, those of primary lvs 3-11 x 1.4-2.4 mm, all striate, usually glabrous dorsally but occasionally pilosulous, tardily deciduous. Lf-formula i/2, the distal pair longer, the anterior lft of proximal pair often smallest; lf-stks 4-12(17, but few >10) mm, at middle 0.35-0.95 mm diam; rachis of pinnae 3—8(—13) mm, the proximal pair of lfts inserted well below middle; lft-pulvinules transversely elliptic 0.5-0.9 x 0.8-1.4 mm; lft-blades elliptic from shallowly semicordate base, obtuse-mucronulate or -apiculate, the distal pair (16-)19-42 x (4-)5-12 mm, (2.9-)3-4.1(-4.5) times as long as wide, the proximal pair half as long or less; midrib nearly straight, forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:1.5-2, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending well beyond mid-blade, the 2-3 outer posterior primary nerves progressively much shorter, all these together with secondary and reticular venulation prominulous on both faces, a little more sharply so beneath. Peduncles 7-26 mm, bracteate near middle, or above middle, or close under the capitulum, the bract (perhaps absent in some plants) deciduous; capitula (14-)16-24-fld, the receptacle 1.5-4 mm diam; bracts narrowly lanceolate 0.7-2 mm, persistent; fls heteromorphic, but scarcely different in length or number of filaments, the 1-3 distal ones a little broader but not longer, their androecium scarcely longer but greatly dilated distally, and furnished with an intrastaminal nectary; perianth of all fls 4(5)-merous, glabrous overall, the calyx delicately striate, the corolla submembranous, not externally venulose; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel often cryptic, in vertical section 0.35-0.6 mm; calyx campanulate 1.4-2.6 x 0.9-1.5 mm, the obtuse teeth 0.1-0.4 mm; corolla 6-7.5 mm, the lobes 1.3-2.7 mm; androecium (6-)9-10-merous, 22-32 mm, the whitish tube 11-16 mm, the stemonozone 0.6-1.5 mm, the tassel pink; intrastaminal nectary 0; (sub)terminal fl(s) a little broader but scarcely longer than the rest, the androecium hardly longer but greatly dilated distally, the orifice of the tube 4.5-7 mm diam, commonly furnished with an ascending membranous lobe between each pair of filaments; intrastaminal nectary to 0.7 mm tall. Pods glabrous or thinly puberulent-pilosulous, in profile 6-9 x (0.6-)0.7-l.l cm, the dilated sutural ribs in dorsal view 2.5-4 mm wide, the plane recessed valves almost nerveless externally; seeds obtusely rhombic in broad view, piano-compressed, 6.5-9 mm in long diam, the papery, dull brown testa wrinkled on the seed faces, peripherally narrowly winged; pleurogram 0.

On stream banks and on islands in river rapids, mostly at 10-400 m, often forming extensive colonies and leaning over the water, scattered along the Andean foothills of w. Amazonia from s.-e. Colombia s. through Ecuador and Peru to n.-e. Bolivia (Beni, Santa Cruz), in Peru occasional as a river bank colonist e.-ward to the Brazilian border, in Ecuador crossing the cordillera and reappearing on the Pacific lowlands; in Colombia frequently cultivated, to 1600 m or more, in the Cauca and middle Magdalena valleys and in Chocó; cultivated on Puerto Rico. — Map 35. — Fl. nearly yearlong. — Chipara (w. Ecuador).

All but rare random leaves of C. angustifolia are exactly 8-foliolate, and the larger distal pair of leaflets are relatively small in context of ser. Macrophyllae, seldom attaining 4 cm in length. The androecium is reduced to about eight to ten stamens, and the pods stand erect on lignescent peduncles. This set of morphological characters effectively separates C. angustifolia from all related species.

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.