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 to 10 m tall and 15 cm dbh., the branchlets irregularly tetragonal with rather thick-ridged corky bark, without lenticels, lepidote or lepidote-punctate. Leaves unifoliolate, opposite, elliptic, rounded to obtuse at base and apex, 3-15 cm long, 1.5-8 cm wide, thick-coriaceous, the margin revolute, conspicuously but not densely lepidote or lepidote-punctate above and below, the scales typically reddish orange, drying olive to olive-brown, darker above, festooned-brochidodromous; petioles 0.5-3 cm long, lepidote. Inflorescence an open few-flowered terminal panicle, often reduced to only two or three flowers, the pedicels 1.5-3.5 cm long, lepidote, almost always with the flowers in groups of three from a common peduncle, two lateral buds arising from the axils of tiny ca. 2 mm long bracts (which correspond to the "bracteoles" of T. schumanniana), bracteoles only on lateral pedicels. Flowers with the calyx tubular-campanulate, irregularly 2-3-labiate, 11-19 mm long, 4-10 mm wide, lepidote, drying brownish or blackish; corolla red or pinkish red, more or less tubular-salverform, 3-5 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 2.5-4 cm long, the lobes 0.5-1 cm long, glabrous except for some lepidote scales on lobes, pubescent at level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, at least the longer pair more or less subexserted, the thecae divaricate, slender, ca. 3 mm long; ovary linear-oblong, strongly tetragonal angled, densely lepidote, 3-4 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide; disk cylindrical-pulvinate, 1.5-2 mm long, 3 mm wide. Fruit linear, terete, 11-20 cm long, 0.6-0.9 cm wide, more or less longitudinally striate, lepidote, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 5-8 mm long, 2.2-3 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, sharply demarcated from the seed body.

Discussion:

Locally dominant in the restricted habitat near the top of El Yunque. Characterized by the red, presumably hummingbird-pollinated, flowers and the very coriaceous simple leaves. Differs only in the more elliptic leaf shape from T. schumanniana of similar habitats in central and western Puerto Rico.

Distribution:

Puerto Rico South America|

Common Names:

roble de sierra