Jacaranda obovata Cham.
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Authority
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bignoniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Brazil. Bahia: Bahia de Todos os Santos, Lhotzky 18470 (B*, F photo 18470, isotype, K).
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Synonyms
Jacaranda nitida DC.
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Description
Species Description - Small to midcanopy tree or treelet (1.5-)3-20 m tall, the branchlets glabrous or glabrescent, sometimes with a few whitish lenticels. Leaves bipinnate (sometimes the uppermost simply pinnate), 25-46 cm long, usually with 6 to 8 pinnae, each pinna with deeply canaliculate rachis with a few small trichomes in dorsal groove and (3-)9-13(-19) distinctly petiolulate elliptic to obovate or somewhat rhombic leaflets, these 3.5-13 cm long and 1.5-6 cm wide, apex rounded to obtuse, often minutely emarginate, the base cuneate, glandular-lepidote below, otherwise glabrous or with a very few minute trichomes near base of midvein, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, entire, usually with slightly involute margin, usually drying dark, if drying olive with noticeably reddish rachis and midveins beneath; lateral pet-iolules 1-5(-10) mm long, the terminal to 15 mm long. Inflorescence a terminal panicle with a tendency to have the flowers more or less clustered toward the apices of lateral branches, the lateral branches sometimes reduced and the flowers becoming subfastigiate along a racemiform panicle, glabrous or with a few lepidote scales, sometimes with conspicuous oblanceolate leaf-like bracts. Flowers with the calyx cupular, truncate to shallowly 5-dentate, 3-6 mm long and 3-4 mm wide, with scattered lepidote scales, otherwise glabrous or with a very few minute simple trichomes; corolla magenta to purplish blue, tubular-campanulate above a narrow basal tube, 3-4.5 cm long, 0.9-1.4 cm wide at the mouth, the lobes ca. 0.5 cm long, the tube 2.5-4 cm long, inconspicuously puberulous outside, mostly with sessile lepidote glands, usually also with a few minute trichomes, the lobes more densely puberulous with longer trichomes (white in bud), inside glandular villous on stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the anthers dithecate, each theca 1.5 mm long, the staminode 2.5-3 cm long, included, the apex usually T-shaped, densely glandular-villous at middle and apex, otherwise sparsely pubescent with short gland-tipped trichomes; ovary flattened-ovate, 1 mm long, 1 mm wide, glabrous; disk annular-pulvinate, 0.5 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Fruit elliptic to elliptic-oblong, thinly woody, 3.5-5.5 cm long, 2.8-3.6 cm wide, the margin not undulate at dehiscence, somewhat lepidote-glandular, otherwise glabrous, drying dark brown or blackish; seeds small-bodied with a surrounding elliptic wing, ca. 1 cm long, ca. 2 cm wide, the wing hyaline-membranaceous with brownish base, clearly demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
As here interpreted, an ecologically limited strict endemic defined by the coriaceous, obtuse to rounded glabrous or nearly glabrous leaflets that dry either dark or olive with a reddish midvein below. The small calyx and characteristically nearly glabrous inflorescence with flowers and branching clustered near the tips of the (sometimes reduced) lateral branches and often with characteristically oblanceolate bracts are also useful characters, as are the unusually small, thinly woody capsules with non-undulate margins. The three closest relatives are J. grandifoliolata, which grows sympatrically in the Bahia restingas but has simply pinnate leaves with subwinged rachis and reduced relatively few-flowered axillary inflorescences, J. microcalyx, a species of non-sandy soils, which is intermediate between J. obovata and J. puberula (see discussion under that species), and J. bracteata. The latter, which occurs mostly farther south and also on sand but in less extreme conditions (Rio de Janeiro: mata de restinga, Espírito Santo: mussanunga), has sometimes been included in J. obovata from which it differs in less coriaceous more acute, olive-drying leaflets.
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Common Names
carobinha
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Distribution
Endemic to sandy coastal restingas of northeastern Brazil from Alagoas to northern Espírito Santo; near sea level.
Brazil South America| Alagoas Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Espirito Santo Brazil South America|