Ebenopsis caesalpinioides


Rupert C. Barneby

1. Ebenopsis caesalpinioides (Standley) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 33. 1928. Pithecollobium caesalpinioides Standley, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 37: 45. 1924. — "Type .. . [US] no. 1,111,319, collected at El Zapote, Municipalidad [sic] de Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico, in 1923 [fl.] by Sr. J. G. Ortega (no. 5128)." — Holotypus, US 1111319!, clastotypus (fragm.), NY!; syntypus (Ortega 5218, fr.), US 1111327!.

Stiffly branched, microphyllidious trees or shrubs of unrecorded stature with stout, abruptly flexuous, densely lenticellate long-shoots armed at each node with a pair of ascending spinescent stipules, the young growth puberulous with pallid flexuous hairs to ±0.25 mm, the leaves ephemeral, the pale green, subconcolorous lfts glabrous facially, minutely ciliolate, the short dense fl-spikes arising from thickened brachyblasts axillary to primary lvs. Primary stipules tapering from thickened base, 5-10 mm, those of brachyblasts subulate 1-1.5 mm, closely imbricate. Lf-formula iii—iv/6—7; lf-stks of primary lvs (few seen) 4-5.5 cm, the petiole 12-18 x 0.5 mm, the interpinnal segments 8-12 mm; nectaries at insertion of each pinna-pair peg-shaped 0.4-0.8 x 0.2-0.5 mm, the head cupular thick-rimmed; pinnae accrescent distally, the rachises of distal pair 15-32 mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 3-5 mm; lft-pulvinules ±0.2-0.3 x 0.5 mm, the lfts appearing sessile against rachis; lfts a little accrescent distally, in outline oblong- or obovate-elliptic from postically semicordate, antically broad-cuneate base, obtuse or broadly deltate-subacute, the penultimate pair 6-12 x 2.2-4 mm, ±2-3 times as long as wide; venation palmate, the subcentric midrib produced to lft-apex, 1—2(—3) branched on each side, the posterior primary nerves usually 2, the inner one produced to or beyond midblade, the outer one shorter, the whole venation bluntly prominulous dorsally, immersed on upper face. Axis of fl-spikes including short peduncle ±10-12 mm, the fls subcontiguous, sessile, homomorphic; bracts spatulate or rhombic-spatulate 1-1.4 mm, persistent into anthesis; perianth 5-merous, the calyx densely puberulent overall, the corolla glabrous or nearly so below middle, the lobes puberulent like calyx, the whole stramineous when dried; calyx campanulate, obscurely angulate ±1.4 x 1.2 mm, the obtuse teeth 0.2 mm; corolla narrowly vase-shaped 4 mm, the erect obtusely ovate lobes ±0.8 mm; androecium ±37- merous, 11 mm, the tube 4.5 mm, shortly exserted from corolla; ovary stipitate, at anthesis glabrous, the stipe 1 mm, the slenderly compressed-ellipsoid body 1.4 mm, 12-ovulate; style about as long as androecium, the stigma poriform. Pods (one seen complete, dehisced, probably a year old) sessile, broad-linear in profile, slightly decurved, ±18 x 4-4.5 cm, compressed but strongly biconvex, horizontally shallow-sulcate between seeds but the immersed sutures not undulate, the thin fuscous epidermis finally breaking into small polygons, the woody valves at maturity ±3 mm thick, apparently narrowly septiferous, the seed- cavities smooth, not colored, ±1.3-1.5 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide; dehiscence through the length of both sutures; funicle and seeds unknown.

In unrecorded habitat, but to be expected in thorn forest below 100 m, known only from the coastal plain of Sinaloa, Mexico, near Matzatlán. The type was collected at "El Zapote"; a second collection at "Los Zapotes." — Map 47. — Fl. presumably following rains. — Guaypinole; tempisque. One collector (Ortega 5218) noted that the roasted seeds are eaten.

Higher leaf-formula, somewhat longer floral axis of the capitulum, and a much larger pod distinguish the two available collections of H. caesalpinioides from closely related H. confinis. The seeds are unknown, but the relatively narrow cavities in the pod suggest that they are obcompressed like those of H. confinis, with areole on the narrower faces.

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.