Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra tergemina var. tergemina

Rupert C. Barneby

76b.  Calliandra tergemina (Linnaeus) Bentham var. tergemina. C. tergemina (Linnaeus) Bentham, 1944, l.c., sens. str. Mimosa tergemina Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 517. 1753. — "Habitat in America meridionali." — Holotypus (Howard, 1988: 352): Acacia frutescens non aculeata, flore purpurascente Plumier ed. Burmann, Pl. amer. 5, t. X, fig. 1 (top left + misplaced caption at bottom right). 1755!. — Inga tergemina Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 4(2): 1008. 1806. — Feuilleea tergemina O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 189. 1891. Anneslia tergemina Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 53. 1928. Calliandra tergemina Standley, Publ. Field Columbian Mus., Bot. Ser. 4(8): 309. 1929, comb, superflua.

Inga caripensis Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 4(2): 1009. 1806. — "Habitat in Nova Andalusia prope Caripe [estado Sucre, Venezuela]." — Holotypus, Humboldt 578 in B-WILLD 19015, seen in Microform!. — Mimosa caripensis Poiret, Encycl. suppl. 1: 39. 1810. — Equated with I. tergemina by Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(qu): 298. 1824.

Mimosa tergemina sensu Jacquin, Select. Stirp. Amer. Hist. 265, t. 177, fig. 81 (one fl). 1763. Inga tergemina sensu de Candolle, Prodr. 2: 437. 1825. Calliandra tergemina sensu Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. I. 225. 1864; Duss, Fl. Phan. Antill. franç. 253. 1897; Stehle & Quentin, Fl. Guadeloupe Depend. Martinique 695. 1978; Howard, 1988: 352.

Shrubs and treelets mostly <4 m; petioles very slender 0.3-0.5 mm diam; lfts thin-textured, seldom over 3 cm, obliquely obovate to inequilaterally elliptic- (ob)lanceolate, either obtuse or acute; peduncles (5-)11-28 x 0.3-0.4 mm; pedicels at most 0.25 mm, commonly 0; perianth glabrous; calyx 0.6-1.2 x 0.4—0.75(-l), the teeth 0.1-0.4 mm; corolla 4.3-7 mm; filaments bicolored, pink distally; pods 5.5-12 x 0.65-0.8 cm; seeds in broad view 7-9 x 3.5^.5 mm, pleurogram 0.

In drought-deciduous brush-woodland and savanna margins, sometimes invading cleared pasture, below 300 m, locally plentiful in the Lesser Antilles (Dominica to Grenada) and along the Caribbean coast of Venezuela from Paria peninsula in Sucre w. through Distrito Federal and Carabobo to e. Lara; an immature specimen from state of Bolívar at 7°22'N, 61°49'W (E. Sanoja 1185, NY) is provisionally referred here, but its varietal status is uncertain. — Map 36. — Fl. VIII—II, perhaps randomly through the year. — Bois-patate, madam-di-poule (Antilles); clavellino (Venezuela).

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.