Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart.

  • Type

    Type. Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, prope Sebastianópolis, Martius 232 (M).

  • Synonyms

    Bignonia antisyphilitica Mart., Bignonia viridiflora Lodd., Bignonia quinquefolia Vell., Phryganocydia antisyphilitica Mart. ex DC., Yangua tinctoria Spruce, Cybistax sprucei K.Schum., Cybistax antisyphilitica var. subtomentosa Bureau & K.Schum., Cybistax antisyphilitica var. coriacea Bureau & K.Schum., Cybistax antisyphilitica var. trochocalyx Bureau & K.Schum., Cybistax coriacea var. barbatula Corr.Mello, Cybistax coriacea var. septenfoliata Corr.Mello ex Stellfeld, Cybistax intermedia Corr.Mello, Cybistax quinquefolia (Vell.) Schaumann

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or tree 1.5-20 m tall, to 20 cm diam., the bark rather thick and vertically fissured; branchlets irregularly subtetragonal, usually rather smooth and shiny when young, thick and corky when older, glabrous or very sparsely scattered-lepidote. Leaves 5-7-foliolate, the leaflets obovate to elliptic, acuminate, cuneate to attenuate at base, 3-21 cm long, 1-9 cm wide, entire (rarely coarsely serrate when very young), membranaceous, drying dark green or blackish, conspicuously glandular-lepidote below, above usually slightly lepidote at least along veins, puberulous with simple trichomes in axils of lateral nerves below and sometimes also sparsely along main veins and rarely on surface; petioles 4-26 cm long, glabrous or with a few minute trichomes, the petiolules ca. 0.5-2(-4) cm long, often not well differentiated from the attenuate leaflet base. Inflorescence a few-branched, spreading, terminal panicle with pedicels longer than peduncle and usually a straight but short central rachis, inconspicuously minutely puberulous and/or lepidote, each dichotomy subtended by membranaceous lanceolate bracts to 0.5 cm long, the pedicels with similar bracteoles in upper half. Flowers light green, the calyx membranaceous, campanulate to infundibuliform, more or less conspicuously 5-dentate, always with acuminate teeth, minutely lepidote, sometimes also puberulous, the teeth extended as lateral ribs, 11-29 mm long (including teeth), 8-25 mm wide; corolla tubular-campanulate above the narrowed base of tube, 4-7 cm long, 1-2 cm wide at mouth, the tube 3.5-6 cm long, the lobes 0.5-1 cm long, tube outside inconspicuously lepidote and sparsely puberulous with short erect trichomes, the lobes more densely puberulous and lepidote-glandular, the margins strongly ciliate, the tube inside almost completely glabrous except for a few short gland-tipped trichomes at stamen insertion, sometimes inconspicuously short-puberulous in flower; anther thecae divaricate, often slightly unequal, 2-3 mm long; ovary ovoid-oblong, somewhat compressed, often longitudinally costate, 3-4 mm long, 2 mm wide, minutely lepidote-glandular; disk annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide. Fruit an oblong capsule, somewhat flattened, acute to acuminate at each end, 13-25 cm long, 4-6 cm wide, very strongly longitudinally 12-ribbed, minutely lepidote; seeds very thin, 2.3-3.5 cm long, 3.5-4.5 cm wide, the heart-shaped seed body sharply demarcated from and completely surrounded by a hyaline-membranaceous wing.

  • Discussion

    Although Martius’ original description includes erroneous references to the lower leaves being bipinnate (the upper correctly described as quinate-digitate) and fruit linear and compressed, the rest of the protologue, as well as the Martius collection at Munich, is clearly referable to this species. Several attempts have been made to recognize segregates of what I treat here as a single well-defined but somewhat variable species. Bureau and K. Schumann (1897) proposed three varieties distinguished by variation in leaf texture, degree of leaf pubescence, and size and length of acumen of the calyx lobes, but these characters seem to vary independently. Other proposed segregations include C. coriacea, supposed to have coriaceous rather than woody capsule valves (Mello, 1952), and Macbride's (1961) suggestion that Peruvian material may be distinct by reason of the corolla being tomentulose inside. Variation in capsule thickness is clearly not worthy of specific recognition and the interior pubescence of the corolla in Peruvian (and Bolivian) material is so sparse and inconspicuous as to seem unworthy of taxonomic recognition. Cybistax is reported to have a variety of uses. The wood is used for construction and carpentry and the leaves were formerly much used in Peru to produce an indigo dye (Spruce, 1859) and kill animals (sub Woytkowski 6934). The plant is also used medicinally, in Brazil against syphilis and against retention of urine and hydropsy (Pio Correa, 1926), in Peru as a cure for “temblores” (sub Gentry et al. 19453).

  • Common Names

    orcco-huoranhuay, espeguilla, yangua, yangua caspi, llangua, llangua colorado, yangua tinctoria, fava-de-aranha, pau de mulato, ipe-verde, ipe-de-flor-verde, ipe mandioca, caroba-de-flor-verde, cinco chagas, ipe-mirim, ipe pardo, caroba-do-campo, carobinha verde, taiiy hoby

  • Objects

    Specimen - 402541, F. H. F. Oldenburger 544, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Suriname

    Specimen - 931165, G. T. Prance 59064, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Distrito Federal

    Specimen - 931163, W. R. Anderson 8296, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Goiás, Cristalina Mun.

    Specimen - 931164, G. T. Prance 59196, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Mato Grosso, Canarana Mun.

    Specimen - 402531, H. S. Irwin 30546, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Minas Gerais

    Specimen - 402525, R. Reitz 7354, Cybistax antisyphilitica (Mart.) Mart., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Santa Catarina, Rio do Sul Mun.

  • Distribution

    Extra-Amazonian Brazil (except the far northeast) to Paraguay, Bolivia, northernmost Argentina (probably) and the driest parts of the Amazonian slope of the Peruvian Andes; a disjunct population recently discovered in the Sipalwini Savannah of southernmost Surinam. Near sea level to 1800(-2400) m, commonest in scrubby second growth.

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