Jacaranda mutabilis Hassl.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Jacaranda mutabilis Hassl.

  • Type

    Type. Paraguay. Alto Paraguay: Esperanza, Esperanza, Rojas s.n. (Hassler 10535) (holotype, G; isotypes(?), C, MICH, MO (as 10539, Sierra de Amambay)).

  • Synonyms

    Jacaranda mutabilis var. angustiflora Hassl., Jacaranda mutabilis var. parvifolia Hassl., Jacaranda mutabilis f. integra Hassl., Jacaranda mutabilis f. subcoaetanea Hassl.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub to 2 m tall, the branchlets subtetragonal, glabrous except for a few small lepidote scales, usually with elongate whitish lenticels (even on petiole). Leaves bipinnate, with 12-18 pinnae, each pinna with deeply grooved or subwinged rachis minutely puberulous above and 9-25 sessile or subsessile broadly lanceolate to narrowly elliptic leaflets, these 1-6 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide, apex acuminate, the base cuneate, virtually glabrous except for numerous lepidote glands, usually also with a few minute curved trichomes along margins and sometimes base of midvein below. Inflorescence a rather congested panicle, usually borne in the axils of fallen leaves, puberulous, the linear bracts caducous. Flowers with the calyx cupular, shallowly 5-denticulate, 3-7 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, minutely puberulous; corolla purple, tubular-campanulate above a narrow base, 4-6.5 cm long, 1-2 cm wide at the mouth, the lobes ca. 1 cm long, the tube 3-5 cm long, sparsely puberulous outside, in part with gland-tipped trichomes, the lobes somewhat ciliate, glabrous inside except for at least some gland-tipped trichomes at the stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the anthers dithecate, each theca 2 mm long, the long staminode 3-4 cm long, subexserted, the apex slightly capitate, glandular villous, especially at apex and near middle; ovary flattened-ovate, 2 mm long, 1 mm wide, glabrous (minutely puberulous in one perhaps diseased collection); disk short-cylindric, 1 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Fruit elliptic, subobtuse at base and apex, 4-5.5 cm long, 2.5-3 cm wide, the margin not undulate at dehiscence, glabrous or very minutely and inconspicuously puberulous, drying blackish; seeds not seen.

  • Discussion

    Close to J. caroba and perhaps only a geographic race of that species; differing in the more acuminate, usually narrower, often conspicuously toothed leaflets, more congested, always puberulous inflorescence usually from leafless older branches, and consistently puberulous calyx. The differences from J. caroba are all in the direction of J. puberula from which J. mutabilis differs in its subshrub habit, cerrado habitat, and more coriaceous essentially glabrous leaflets. Duarte 777 from Uberaba, Minas Gerais is intermediate with a narrow leaflet with strongly acute apex, almost glabrous calyx but distinctly puberulous inflorescence, and open inflorescences from leafless branches.

  • Objects

    Specimen - 402562, H. S. Irwin 16936, Jacaranda mutabilis Hassl., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; South America, Brazil, Mato Grosso, Barra do Garças Mun.

  • Distribution

    Southwestern cerrado, mostly in Mato Grosso, also adjacent parts of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and the Sierra de Amambay of Paraguay; near sea level to 600 m elevation.

    Brazil South America| Mato Grosso Brazil South America| Mato Grosso do Sul Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Amambay Paraguay South America| Alto Paraguay Paraguay South America|