Abarema killipii
Rupert C. Barneby
24. Abarema killipii (Britton & Killip) Barneby & Grimes, comb. nov. Punjuba killipii Britton & Rose ex Britton & Killip, Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 35: 127. 1936. — "Open hills, Salento, Caldas [W foothills of Nevado de Tolima at ±4°40'N], Colombia, 1700-1900 m altitude, July 25-31,1922, [E. P.] Killip 9043." — Holotypus, NY!; isotypi, F!, GH!, US!. — Pithecellobium killipii (Britton & Killip) C. Barbosa, Caldasia 15: 191. 1986.
Macrophyllous trees 7-10 m with trunk 1.6-2 dm dbh, the young branches, lf-stks and inflorescence densely minutely silky-puberulent with sordid-yellowish hairs to 0.25 mm, the broad thin-textured lfts glabrate except along principal nerves or fully glabrous in age, the relatively dense amentiform spikes of homomorphic, greenish white fls borne singly and geminate in the axil of coeval lvs. Stipules 0. Lf- formula i/4-6, the lfts 16-24 per lf; lf-stks 2.5-4.5 cm, at middle 1.5-2.5 mm diam, the ovate terminal appendage thickened, caducous; a sessile, shallowly cupular thick-rimmed, crumpled and transversely dilated nectary ±1.2 mm diam at tip of lf-stk and similar, scarcely smaller ones between all but the first lft- pair; rachis of pinnae 8-16 cm, one of the pair often a little shorter than the other, the interfoliolar segments ±2-4 cm; lft-pulvinules 2.5-3.5 x 1.4 mm, not wrinkled; lfts a little distally accrescent, the blade ovate from broad-cuneate base, shortly bluntly acuminate, the largest (either furthest or penultimate) pair ±9-15 x 4-4.7 cm, 2.1-2.4 times as long as wide; venation obtusely prominulous on either face of lft, the centric, almost straight midrib giving rise to 6-7 major (but slender), incurved-ascending secondary nerves weakly brochidodrome well within the almost plane margin, the tertiary and reticular venulation fine and sinuous. Peduncle and raceme-axis together 10-13 cm; spikes ± 120—165-fld, the sessile, horizontally spreading fls crowded but at full anthesis not contiguous; bracts subulate 0.5 mm or less, caducous; perianth finely yellowish silky-strigulose externally; calyx deeply campanulate 2.8-3 x 1.1-1.3 mm, the broad-triangular or subulate teeth unequal, 0.1-0.35 mm; corolla narrowly trumpet-shaped 7.5-8 mm, the erect, unqual, narrow-ovate obtuse lobes 0.7-2 x 0.6-0.7 mm; androecium 34-merous, 12-16 mm, the stemonozone 0.7-0.9 mm, the tube 6-6.5 mm, the tassel greenish white; no intrastaminal disc. Pods (of type) sessile, undulately linear and recurved through more than one full circle, at each of ±10 seeds 10-12 mm wide in profile, the stiffly papery valves stramineous externally when ripe, internally pinkish orange at the seed-cavities; dehiscence elastic, the valves separating the full length and individually coiling; seeds unknown.
In moist montane and premontane forest, surviving deforestation in meadows and on open hillsides, known by one collection from foothills of Nevado de Tolima, near 4°40'N in prov. Caldas, Colombia, and from two stations on the E slope of the Ecuadorean Andes on the headwaers of ríos Napo and Santiago, within lat. 0°-3°S in prov. Napo and Santiago- Zamora. — Map 24A. — Fl. VII-XI.
References: [Article] Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.