Calliandra Species Pages
Calliandra houstoniana var. colomasensis
Rupert C. Barneby
118b. Calliandra houstoniana (Miller) Standley var. colomasensis (Britton & Rose) Barneby, stat. nov. Anneslia colomasensis Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 72. 1928. — "[Mexico.] . . . near Colomas, Sinaloa, July 14, 1927, [J. N.J Rose 1660. " — Holotypus, NY!; isotypus, US!.
Suggesting a small-lvd variant of var. anomala, but the fls and especially the fruits notably small, the vesture of inflorescence appressed, silvery-gray. Lf-formula ±xiii/38; lf-stks 7-8 cm, the longer interpinnal segments 6-9 mm; rachis of longer pinnae 1-1.7 cm; lfts imbricate, linear-elliptic obtuse, faintly 1-nerved, the longer ones ±2.8 x 0.5 mm. Peduncles to 8 mm; pedicels to 2.5 x 0.6 mm; calyx ±1.4 x 2.2 mm, the teeth 0.3 mm; corolla to 7.7 mm, the lobes at maturity to 5 mm; androecium ±3.2 cm, of unknown color but probably red throughout. Pods ±3.5-5 x 0.5-0.6 cm, the valves subappressed-pilosulous with gray hairs.
In unrecorded habitat, known only from the type, collected in young flower and almost mature fruit in July, the "Colomas" of the protologue not precisely identified.
In their key to Houstonianae Britton and Rose (1928: 52) distinguished Anneslia colomasensis by leaflets only 1.5 mm and flowers 6 mm long, but these measurements are not confirmed by the holotype, which has leaflets to 2.8 mm and corolla to 7.7 mm long. The plant is nevertheless peculiar in its very short pinnae and especially in its short narrow pod. There seems little of substance to separate A. colomasensis from var. anomala, and what there is will obviously require evaluation when further collections are secured. It was equated with C. grandiflora by Macqueen and H. Hernández (1997: 23).
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.