Known from only one foliate long-shoot with terminal efoliate pseudoraceme of few-fld umbelliform capitula resembling those of C. houstoniana var. anomala, either shrubby or virgate, the hornotinous stem and lf-axes densely pilosulous with sordid hairs to ±0.6 mm, egranular, the small crowded lfts glabrous facially, ciliolate, subconcolorous, the perianth white-and fuscous-strigose. Stipules caducous (few seen) lanceolate ±3x1 mm. Lf-formula i—ii/30— 38, some lvs consisting of one proximal pair of pinnae and one terminal pinna; lf-stks 3.5-7 mm, the one interpinnal segment, when present, {2 mm; rachis of longer pinnae ±2.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments ±1 mm; lft-pulvinules ±0.2 x 0.3 mm, not wrinkled; lfts subequilong except at very ends of rachis, the blades linear-elliptic from shallowly auriculate base, obtuse, straight or gently incurved, the longer ones 4-5.5 x 1-1.2 mm, 4-4.5 times as long as wide, 1-nerved, the slender costa subcentric at midblade, simple. Inflorescence narrowly pyramidal, the primary axis simple ±1 dm, efoliate; peduncles stout, 2-3 per node of inflorescence, 4—7.5 mm; capitula 3-5-fld, the pedicels 1-2 x 1-1.5 mm; perianth 5-merous, the calyx thinly brownish-puberulent, the corolla densely strigose, the hairs mostly white, fuscous at tip of lobes; calyx hemispherical ±2 x 3.7 mm, the depressed-deltate, very obtuse teeth ±0.3 mm; corolla 12 mm, the lanceolate, internally fuscous lobes ±7 mm; androecium 40-merous, ±4 cm, the stemonozone 3 mm, the tube 5 mm, the tassel of unknown color (but probably red); intrastaminal disc not seen; ovary at anthesis pilosulous. Pods not seen fully ripe, ±6.5 x 0.7 cm, densely gray-pilosulous overall; seeds unknown.

In unrecorded habitat, but to be sought in the pine-oak zone, collected once in Guatemala, in 1857, between Lago Izabal and Cd. Guatemala, not since seen. — Fl. I—II(—?).

Calliandra wendlandii has the blunt leaflets with scarcely displaced midrib, the terminal efoliate inflorescence, and the individual flowers of C. houstoniana var. anomala, of which it is clearly a near relative. In the protologue Bentham twice described the leaves as conjugately bipinnate, but the leaves of the holotypus, annotated in Bentham’s hand, have either one pair of pinnae, or two pairs crowded together at tip of leaf-stalk, or (in a few) one perfect pair and one terminal pinna. Bentham’s error of oversight was copied by Britton and Rose (1928) and by Standley and Steyermark (1946), but does not jeopardize the status of the species, unless the typus itself represents a freak with abnormally reduced leaf-formula.

Standley and Steyermark (1946) suggested that Calliandra wendlandii may not be Guatemalan. However, if the date of collection (4 Jan 1857) is recorded correctly, the typus must have been collected (Schlechtendal, Bot. Zeit. 15: 278-280. 1858) by Wendland en route with Skinner between Lago Yzabal and Ciudad Guatemala. The species should be expected in the oak- belt in southeastern Guatemala.

The typus of C. wendlandii is interpreted by Macqueen and Hernández (1997: 23) as decapitated C. grandiflora.