Calliandra Species Pages

Calliandra mucugeana

Rupert C. Barneby

96. Calliandra mucugeana Renvoize, Kew Bull. 36: 83, fig. 4(38), 8E. 1981. — "Brazil, Bahia... Mucuge Harley etal. 16095." — Holotypus, CEPEC!; isotypi, K!, NY!. Fig. 24

C. mucugeana sensu Harley & Simmons, 1986: 115; Lewis, 1987: 175.

Small shrubs forming diminutive thickets 2-5(-6) m tall, the simple and when older widely branched stems fuscous defoliate glabrate, the hornotinous branches densely leafy and together with lf-axes minutely pilosulous with erect whitish hairs ±0.1-0.2 mm and in addition microscopically reddish-granular, the lvs conspicuously bicolored, dark, highly lustrous and low-convex above, paler dull and minutely resin-dotted beneath, the few-fld capitula borne solitary or in pairs, either all in uppermost lf-axils or some distal ones shortly pseudoracemose, the glabrous red-stamened fls nestled in foliage or barely exserted; phyllotaxy erratic, spiral or subdistichous. Stipules thin-textured, early shed, linear or narrowly elliptic 1-3 x 0.4—1.2 mm, weakly 1-nerved, the nerve simple or rarely branched. Lf-formula (ii—)iii—iv/13-18(-20); lf-stks (4.5-)7-34 mm, the petiole including discolored obese pulvinus 1.5-4 x 1-1.7 mm, the one or the longest of 2-3 interpinnal segments 4—11 mm, the ventral groove bridged at insertion of pinnae; pinnae subequilong or the furthest pair shorter, the rachis of longer ones (2-)2.5-4(-6.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 1-3.6 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.1-0.25 x 0.5-1 mm; lfts decrescent at each end of rachis, otherwise subequilong, the blades narrowly oblong from obliquely truncate base, straight or almost so, broadly obtuse, those near mid-rachis 5-9 x 1.7-3 mm, 2.5-3.5 times as long as wide; venation of 3-4(-5) nerves from pulvinule, the straight midrib forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:2, usually 2-branched beyond mid-blade, the inner posterior primary nerve produced to anastomosis well beyond mid-blade, the outer one(s) much shorter, all veins bluntly prominulous on lower face, less so or immersed on upper. Peduncles 7-22 mm, ebracteate; capitula 5-9-fld, the truncate or low-convex receptacle 1-1.5 mm; bracts submembranous ovate 0.5-1.1 mm, deciduous; fls appearing sessile, homomorphic; perianth usually glabrous except for microscopically ciliolate calyx-teeth, the corolla exceptionally strigulose with few random and remote appressed hairs, the calyx faintly 5-nerved, the corolla externally nerveless; pedicels discoid 0.3-0.6 x 1.1-1.6 mm, scarcely differentiated externally from calyx; calyx submembranous, shallowly campanulate 1.7-2.4 x 2-2.5 mm, the low-deltate teeth 0.3-0.5 mm; corolla 5.6-6.1 mm, the ovate lobes 1.8-3 mm; androecium 30-36-merous, 24-27 mm, the stemonozone 0.9-1.7 mm, thickened internally, the pallid tube 4.4—5.5 mm, the tassel bright red; ovary subsessile, glabrous at anthesis, puberulent after fertilization. Pods ±4.5-6.5 x 0.7-0.8 cm, densely velutinous overall with fine erect brownish hairs, 4—5-seeded, the sutural keels in dorsal view ±3 mm wide, the recessed valves nearly plane lignescent, not visibly venulose; seeds unknown.

In campo rupestre and on rocky river banks, 600-1100 m, locally plentiful on the e. slope of Chapada Diamantina in lat. 12°30'-13°S, interior upland Bahia (Palmeiras, Lençois, Brejão, Andaraí, Mucugé). — Fl. II, VI, XI, perhaps at intervals throughout the year.

The decorative C. mucugeana is readily recognized, in context of Bahian ser. Calliandra, by low stature, thicket-forming or "carpet-like" habit of growth, shorttoothed calyx, and brilliant carmine tassel.

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.

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