Authority:

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

Family:

Bignoniaceae

Description:

Species Description - Shrub or small tree 2-5 m tall, dichotomously branched, the branchlets minutely lepidote with sessile scales. Leaves 1-3-foliolate, the leaflets narrowly oblong-elliptic to very narrowly oblanceolate-oblong, the apex obtuse to acutish, sometimes mucronate, the base rounded to rather obtusely cuneate, the terminal 2-5.8 cm long, 0.6-1.6 cm wide (to 6.5 x 2.5 cm when unifoliolate) the basals 1.2-4.6 cm long, 0.4-1.4 cm wide, densely lepidote above and below with uniformly whitish trichomes, drying light olive above, grayish below, the secondary veins below not strongly raised nor conspicuously brochidodromous nor obviously different in color, only the midvein strongly raised and paler, the margin more or less erose; terminal petiolule 2-5 mm long, the lateral leaflets mostly asymmetrically subsessile, the petiole 0.5-2.4 cm long, lepidote. Inflorescence of one or two terminal flowers, lepidote with darkish sessile trichomes, with a few kinky multicelled trichomes on the bracteoles. Flowers with the calyx irregularly shallowly 3-5-labiate, 9-10 mm long, ca. 5 mm wide, densely lepidote with sessile (and a few subsessile) scales, drying dark brownish, sometimes with small darker areas around sunken-lepidote glands; corolla presumably light pink or lavender, tubular-infundibuliform above the narrow base of tube, 4-5 cm long, 0.9-1.3 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 3-4 cm long, the lobes ca. 0.5-0.8 cm long, glabrous outside, scurfy puberulous in floor of tube, conspicuously villous at level of stamen insertion, the lobes ciliate or not; anthers held near middle of tube, the thecae divaricate, 3 mm long; ovary linear, 4 mm long, 1 mm wide, densely lepidote; disk annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 2 mm wide. Fruit (only 1 seen), linear-cylindric, the surface slightly wrinkle-ridged but not striate-costate, 12-13 cm long, 0.6-0.8 cm wide, densely lepidote with blackish scales, the calyx apparently not persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 4-5 mm long, 15-19 mm wide, the hyaline membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.

Discussion:

A close relative of T. heterophylla and T. berteroi distinguished by the narrowly oblong leaflet shape, erose leaflet margins, indistinct secondary veins, and lack of reddish peltate scales on the leaflet undersurface. It is approached by less extreme collections here retained in T. heterophylla (e.g., T. dictyophylla, T. arenicola) and is perhaps only a narrowly oblong-leafleted ecotype of that polymorphic species.

Distribution:

Cuba South America| Villa Clara Cuba South America| Santiago de Cuba Cuba South America|