Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra brenesii

Rupert C. Barneby

78.  Calliandra brenesii Standley, Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 18 (Fl. Costa Rica), 2: 491. 1937. — "[Costa Rica. Alajuela: Cataratas de San Ramon, May, 1931, [Alberto M] Brenes 13180" — Holotypus, Brenes 13680 (not 13180), F!; isotypus, NY!; paratypi, Brenes 4424,13503, F!, NY!.

C. brenesii sensu J. G. Laurito, Brenesia 25-56, cover. 1986 (photo in color).

Slender sarmentose macrophyllidious shrubs 2-3 m, with smooth pallid terete branchlets, glabrous throughout, the papery lfts lustrous dark brown-olivaceous above, paler beneath, the capitula of dark red fls arising singly on subfiliform pliant, mostly geotropic peduncles from axils of short, mostly efoliate, loosely thatched brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules erect, linear-lanceolate (4-)6-13 x 0.6-1.6 mm, weakly striate toward base, pallid in age, persistent. Lf- formula i/½, the lvs bifoliolate; petioles 2-17 x 1.1-1.6 mm, openly shallowly sulcate ventrally, horny-dilated at apex; rachis of each pinna at most 3 mm, often reduced or almost so to pulvinus and homy apical dilation; lft-pulvinules 0.8-1.5 x 1-2 mm, coarsely wrinkled; lft-blades obliquely or subdimidiately ovate- or lance-acuminate from postically shallow-cordate, antically cuneate base, at very tip either deltately acute or obtuse mucronulate, the larger ones 10-19 x 3.3-6.5 cm, 2.3-3.3 times as long as wide; primary venation palmate, the strong, gently incurved midrib displaced to divide blade ±1:2, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending at least ? length of blade, the outer posterior one much shorter, these all prominulous on both faces of blade, the numerous secondary and sinuous tertiary venules much weaker. Peduncles 2.8-2.5 cm, at middle 0.25-0.6 mm diam, bracteate either above or below middle; capitula (9-)16-24-fld, the plumply claviform receptacle 1.5-2 mm; bracts lanceolate or narrowly ovate 0.8-2 mm, persistent; pedicels (often not well differentiated externally) 0.3-0.9 x 0.4-0.6 mm; fls homomorphic, the perianth either 3- or 4-merous, often asymmetrical, glabrous throughout; calyx campanulate 2.8-3 x 1.3-2.5 mm, the teeth 0.3-0.9 mm, one sinus often more deeply split in age; corolla 9-10.5 mm, the lance-ovate lobes 2-3.2 mm; androecium 24—30-merous, 2.9-3.6 cm, the stemonozone 0.6-1.4 mm, the tube 8.5-12 mm, either included or shortly exserted, the intrastaminal nectary 0.6-1.4 mm tall; ovary glabrous. Pods (seen only after dehiscence) ±10-11 x 0.85-1.2 cm, the coriaceous valves glabrous, obliquely venulose; seeds unknown.

In understory of wet premontane forest, (?-)500-650(-?) m, apparently localized in upland Alajuela, Costa Rica. — Map 37. — Fl. V-VI, IX, the full cycle unknown.

Notable characters of the morphologically specialized C. brenesii are: loss of indumentum; bauhinia-like, bifoliolate leaves with short petiole and subobsolete pinna-rachis; an often trimerous perianth; and scarlet 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.