Monographs Details:
Authority:
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
Family:
Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae
Synonyms:
Bignonia chrysantha (Jacq.) Jacq., Tecoma chrysantha Jacq., Tecoma spectabilis Planch. & Linden, Tabebuia rufescens Johnst., Tecoma evenia Donn.Sm., Tecoma palmeri Kraenzl.
Bignonia chrysantha (Jacq.) Jacq., Tecoma chrysantha Jacq., Tecoma spectabilis Planch. & Linden, Tabebuia rufescens Johnst., Tecoma evenia Donn.Sm., Tecoma palmeri Kraenzl.
Description:
Subspecies Description - Tree usually 10-20 m tall, the bark pale to dark gray, scaly, wood hard and heavy, dark olive brown with yellow (lapachol) deposits in the vessels, the sapwood contrastingly lighter; twigs subtetragonal, varyingly stellate-pubescent when young, glabrescent. Leaves palmately 5-foliolate, the leaflets oblong-obovate, obtuse to abruptly acuminate, obtuse to truncate at base, the terminal leaflet to 17 cm long and 9 cm wide, lateral leaflets progressively smaller, entire or serrate, membranaceous to rigid-chartaceous, lepidote above and beneath, sometimes stellate-pubescent above, always to some extent beneath, especially along main veins, the trichomes scattered to fairly dense over the lamina; terminal petiolule 1-3 cm long, the laterals shorter, the petiole 3-9 cm long, stellate pubescent to glabrate. Inflorescence a contracted more or less fasciculate terminal panicle, the branches stellate-rufescent, the bracts extremely reduced. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, 5-9 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, stellate and short-dendroid pubescent, the reddish brown trichomes less than 1 mm long; corolla yellow with reddish pencilling in throat, when dried with the venation reticulate to the margins of the lobes, the dried tube and lobes indistinguishable in color, tubular-infundibuliform, 4-6.5 cm long, the tube 3-4.5 cm long and 1-2 cm wide at mouth, the lobes 0.8-1.5 cm long, glabrous outside, inside rather densely pubescent in floor and throat and glandular-pubescent at level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the thecae divergent to divaricate, 2-3 mm long; pistil 1.8-3.2 cm long, the ovary linear-oblong, 3.5-5 mm long and 1.5-2 mm wide, glabrous to lepidote or sparsely stellate-puberulous (densely stellate puberulous and rather warty-surfaced in Ecuador), the ovules 8-10 seriate in each locule; disk pulvinate, 0.5-1 mm long, 2-3 mm wide. Fruit a linear-cylindric capsule, tapering to the base and apex, 15-50 cm long, 0.8-2 cm wide, rather sparsely short-stellate puberulous, finely and irregularly striate to rather rough-surfaced (in western Ecuador and Mexico); seeds 0.4-0.9 cm long, 1.4-3.3 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, well demarcated from the seed body.
Subspecies Description - Tree usually 10-20 m tall, the bark pale to dark gray, scaly, wood hard and heavy, dark olive brown with yellow (lapachol) deposits in the vessels, the sapwood contrastingly lighter; twigs subtetragonal, varyingly stellate-pubescent when young, glabrescent. Leaves palmately 5-foliolate, the leaflets oblong-obovate, obtuse to abruptly acuminate, obtuse to truncate at base, the terminal leaflet to 17 cm long and 9 cm wide, lateral leaflets progressively smaller, entire or serrate, membranaceous to rigid-chartaceous, lepidote above and beneath, sometimes stellate-pubescent above, always to some extent beneath, especially along main veins, the trichomes scattered to fairly dense over the lamina; terminal petiolule 1-3 cm long, the laterals shorter, the petiole 3-9 cm long, stellate pubescent to glabrate. Inflorescence a contracted more or less fasciculate terminal panicle, the branches stellate-rufescent, the bracts extremely reduced. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, 5-9 mm long, 4-7 mm wide, stellate and short-dendroid pubescent, the reddish brown trichomes less than 1 mm long; corolla yellow with reddish pencilling in throat, when dried with the venation reticulate to the margins of the lobes, the dried tube and lobes indistinguishable in color, tubular-infundibuliform, 4-6.5 cm long, the tube 3-4.5 cm long and 1-2 cm wide at mouth, the lobes 0.8-1.5 cm long, glabrous outside, inside rather densely pubescent in floor and throat and glandular-pubescent at level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the thecae divergent to divaricate, 2-3 mm long; pistil 1.8-3.2 cm long, the ovary linear-oblong, 3.5-5 mm long and 1.5-2 mm wide, glabrous to lepidote or sparsely stellate-puberulous (densely stellate puberulous and rather warty-surfaced in Ecuador), the ovules 8-10 seriate in each locule; disk pulvinate, 0.5-1 mm long, 2-3 mm wide. Fruit a linear-cylindric capsule, tapering to the base and apex, 15-50 cm long, 0.8-2 cm wide, rather sparsely short-stellate puberulous, finely and irregularly striate to rather rough-surfaced (in western Ecuador and Mexico); seeds 0.4-0.9 cm long, 1.4-3.3 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, well demarcated from the seed body.
Discussion:
This species is part of a highly variable complex in which species limits are difficult to draw. In general, it is defined by having leaves with fairly sparse stellate pubescence mostly along the main veins below, and by having fruit and calyx with a relatively short reddish indumentum. This circumscription also includes T. capitata (where see discussion), which replaces T. chrysantha more or less allopatrically in most of Amazonia and may not be adequately differentiated for specific recognition. Other taxa closely related to T. chrysantha by fruit and calyx pubescence mostly have the leaflets much more densely stellate below (thus usually strongly bicolored), but T. chrysantha ssp. meridionalis also has distinctly bicolored leaflets, densely stellate below, although with longer trichomes than in T. incana or typical T. subtilis. What is here considered a southern population of T. ochracea in Bolivia, northwest Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil, is intermediate between that species and T. chrysantha. This form, previously usually assigned to T. lapacho or T. ochracea, has the short reddish calyx pubescence of T. chrysantha and variable but generally intermediate leaf undersurface indumentum. The single fruit that I have seen (from Paraguay) is villous as in T. ochracea and T. chrysotricha, but the more glabrescent-leaved western populations might turn out to also have less pubescent fruits and be better placed in T. chrysantha. I here treat T. lapacho as a high altitude local endemic (see discussion under that species) and suspect that the southern collections related to T. chrysantha may be closer to T. chrysotricha, which (like T. ochracea) is most definitively differentiated by longer fruit trichomes. Unfortunately, fruits from this region are not available.
This species is part of a highly variable complex in which species limits are difficult to draw. In general, it is defined by having leaves with fairly sparse stellate pubescence mostly along the main veins below, and by having fruit and calyx with a relatively short reddish indumentum. This circumscription also includes T. capitata (where see discussion), which replaces T. chrysantha more or less allopatrically in most of Amazonia and may not be adequately differentiated for specific recognition. Other taxa closely related to T. chrysantha by fruit and calyx pubescence mostly have the leaflets much more densely stellate below (thus usually strongly bicolored), but T. chrysantha ssp. meridionalis also has distinctly bicolored leaflets, densely stellate below, although with longer trichomes than in T. incana or typical T. subtilis. What is here considered a southern population of T. ochracea in Bolivia, northwest Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil, is intermediate between that species and T. chrysantha. This form, previously usually assigned to T. lapacho or T. ochracea, has the short reddish calyx pubescence of T. chrysantha and variable but generally intermediate leaf undersurface indumentum. The single fruit that I have seen (from Paraguay) is villous as in T. ochracea and T. chrysotricha, but the more glabrescent-leaved western populations might turn out to also have less pubescent fruits and be better placed in T. chrysantha. I here treat T. lapacho as a high altitude local endemic (see discussion under that species) and suspect that the southern collections related to T. chrysantha may be closer to T. chrysotricha, which (like T. ochracea) is most definitively differentiated by longer fruit trichomes. Unfortunately, fruits from this region are not available.
Distribution:
Orange Walk Belize Central America| Atlántico Colombia South America| Boyacá Colombia South America| Caldas Colombia South America| César Colombia South America| Magdalena Colombia South America| Meta Colombia South America| El Oro Ecuador South America| Esmeraldas Ecuador South America| Guayas Ecuador South America| Manabí Ecuador South America| Ahuachapán El Salvador Central America| La Libertad El Salvador Central America| San Salvador El Salvador Central America| Sonsonate El Salvador Central America| Alta Verapaz Guatemala Central America| Jutiapa Guatemala Central America| Petén Guatemala Central America| Santa Rosa Guatemala Central America| Guyana South America| Choluteca Honduras Central America| El Paraíso Honduras Central America| Morazán Honduras Central America| Yoro Honduras Central America| Campeche Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Chihuahua Mexico North America| Colima Mexico North America| Guerrero Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| México Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Nayarit Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Quintana Roo Mexico North America| Sinaloa Mexico North America| Sonora Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Yucatán Mexico North America| Zacatecas Mexico North America| Chinandega Nicaragua Central America| Chontales Nicaragua Central America| Managua Nicaragua Central America| Rivas Nicaragua Central America| Panama Central America| Cajamarca Peru South America| Huánuco Peru South America| Junín Peru South America| Loreto Peru South America| Madre de Dios Peru South America| San Martín Peru South America| Tumbes Peru South America| Ucayali Peru South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Apure Venezuela South America| Aragua Venezuela South America| Barinas Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Carabobo Venezuela South America| Distrito Federal Venezuela South America| Falcón Venezuela South America| Guárico Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America| Nueva Esparta Venezuela South America| Sucre Venezuela South America| Táchira Venezuela South America| Yaracuy Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America|
Orange Walk Belize Central America| Atlántico Colombia South America| Boyacá Colombia South America| Caldas Colombia South America| César Colombia South America| Magdalena Colombia South America| Meta Colombia South America| El Oro Ecuador South America| Esmeraldas Ecuador South America| Guayas Ecuador South America| Manabí Ecuador South America| Ahuachapán El Salvador Central America| La Libertad El Salvador Central America| San Salvador El Salvador Central America| Sonsonate El Salvador Central America| Alta Verapaz Guatemala Central America| Jutiapa Guatemala Central America| Petén Guatemala Central America| Santa Rosa Guatemala Central America| Guyana South America| Choluteca Honduras Central America| El Paraíso Honduras Central America| Morazán Honduras Central America| Yoro Honduras Central America| Campeche Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Chihuahua Mexico North America| Colima Mexico North America| Guerrero Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| México Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Nayarit Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Quintana Roo Mexico North America| Sinaloa Mexico North America| Sonora Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Yucatán Mexico North America| Zacatecas Mexico North America| Chinandega Nicaragua Central America| Chontales Nicaragua Central America| Managua Nicaragua Central America| Rivas Nicaragua Central America| Panama Central America| Cajamarca Peru South America| Huánuco Peru South America| Junín Peru South America| Loreto Peru South America| Madre de Dios Peru South America| San Martín Peru South America| Tumbes Peru South America| Ucayali Peru South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Apure Venezuela South America| Aragua Venezuela South America| Barinas Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Carabobo Venezuela South America| Distrito Federal Venezuela South America| Falcón Venezuela South America| Guárico Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America| Nueva Esparta Venezuela South America| Sucre Venezuela South America| Táchira Venezuela South America| Yaracuy Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America|
Common Names:
verdecillo, amapa, amapa prieta, roble, ahau-che, ha-hauche, matilisguate, cortez, cortez amarillo, cortez, coyote, cortez negro., guayacán, guayacán de la costa, araguaney puy, araguaney, flor amarilla, guayacán, roble amarillo, yellow poui
verdecillo, amapa, amapa prieta, roble, ahau-che, ha-hauche, matilisguate, cortez, cortez amarillo, cortez, coyote, cortez negro., guayacán, guayacán de la costa, araguaney puy, araguaney, flor amarilla, guayacán, roble amarillo, yellow poui