Authority:

Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family:

Bignoniaceae

Synonyms:

Tabebuia oligolepis Urb., Tabebuia maestrensis Urb.

Description:

Species Description - Tree to 20 m, dichotomously branched, the branchlets terete to more or less angled, the leaves tending to cluster apically, the nodes usually conspicuously raised below each leaf, sparsely lepidote with irregular reddish sessile and in part short-stalked peltate scales. Leaves 5-9-foliolate, the leaflets narrowly obovate to elliptic, rounded or minutely retuse at apex, rounded to cuneate or minutely subcordate at base, the terminal 2-9.5 cm long, 0.6-4 cm wide, the basals 1-6 cm long, 0.4-2.5 cm wide, sometimes with a much smaller subsessile basal pair, coriaceous, slightly scattered-lepidote above, below rather sparsely and minutely impressed-lepidote or lepidote-punctate, olive gray to brownish, usually with the secondary veins lighter beneath, more or less concolorous or slightly darker above, plane above, the tertiary venation minutely prominulous below, smooth to the touch, the margin entire, not revolute; petiolules long and slender, the terminal (0.3-)0.5-2.5 cm long, the basals 0.2-1 cm long, the petiole 0.5-10 cm long, sparsely lepidote. Inflorescence a few terminal flowers, rather sparsely lepidote with large darkish, sessile peltate scales. Flowers with the calyx openly campanulate, 10-14 mm long, 8-14 mm wide, irregularly shallowly 5-lobate to almost subtruncate, lepidote with sessile blackish scales, drying blackish; corolla pinkish to whitish, tubular-infundibuliform, glabrous outside, inside scurfy puberulous in throat and villous at level of stamen insertion, the lobes very sparsely or not at all short-ciliate; anther thecae held below middle of tube, thick, divaricate, 3-4 mm long; pistil ca. 2.5-3 cm long, the ovary linear-oblong, 4-5 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, very densely reddish-tan lepidote, disk patelliform-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, 8-14 cm long, 9-12 mm wide, somewhat woody, sparsely lepidote, drying dark brownish, irregularly or not at all longitudinally wrinkled, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 4-5 mm long, ca. 2 cm wide, the hyaline-membranaceous seed wings sharply demarcated from seed body.

Discussion:

This species differs from T. heterophylla in the more numerous longer-petioled leaflets, the less extensive covering of lepidote scales, the thicker pulvinate disk, and the woodier brownish fruit valves. The form of T. heterophylla that most closely approaches T. shaferi is T. gonavensis of Gonave Island, Haiti, which has similarly round-tipped, narrowly obovate, rather long-petiolulate leaflets. This species is even closer to T. polyantha of Hispaniola but that species is precociously flowering, has larger more lepidote petioles, plane leaf undersurfaces except for the barely (or not at all) prominulous secondary veins, more conspicuously lepidote grayish or tannish-drying calyces and inflorescences, and a longer less woody, more densely lepidote and evenly costate fruit. The type of T. shaferi has more broadly elliptic leaflets than other collections referred here and has truncate to subcordate leaflet bases. It is from the northern foothills of the Sierra Maestra from an unspecified altitude, but seems to be conspecific with this upland plant. As thus interpreted, T. shaferi is a narrow endemic of the cloud forests of upper elevations in the Sierra Maestra. This interpretation is very different from that of Alain (1957) who included in T. shaferi much material from other provinces that I would refer to T. heterophylla.

Distribution:

Cuba South America| Granma Cuba South America| Guantánamo Cuba South America| Santiago de Cuba Cuba South America|