Jacaranda puberula 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. Sellow s.n. (lectotype, K; isotype, HAL).
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Synonyms
Bignonia obovata (Kunth) Spreng., Jacaranda puberula var. microphylla Cham., Jacaranda puberula var. macrophylla Cham., Jacaranda semiserrata Cham., Jacaranda paulistana Silva Manso, Jacaranda endotricha DC., Jacaranda subrhombea DC., Jacaranda obovata Cham., Jacaranda hebephora DC., Jacaranda gloxiniiflora Lem., Jacaranda digitaliflora Lem., Jacaranda digitaliflora var. albiflora Lem., Jacaranda purpurea Vattimo
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Description
Species Description - Small to medium-sized tree 3-20 m tall, the branchlets subterete to subtetragonal, very minutely puberulous to glabrous, with whitish lenticels. Leaves bipinnate, (20-)25-35(-45) cm long, with 8-10(-12) pinnae, each pinna with puberulous, subwinged or dorsally grooved rachis and (5-)9-17(-19) sessile or short petiolulate somewhat asymmetric rhombic-elliptic to obovate leaflets, these (1.1-)2.5-4(-8) cm long and (0.4-)1.1-1 -6(-3.2) cm wide, apex obtuse to acuminate, the base cuneate or obtuse, always somewhat puberulous, almost always at least with tufts of trichomes in axils of secondary veins below, usually with simple trichomes along main veins below, membranaceous, usually irregularly fewtoothed at least along one margin. Inflorescence a panicle, puberulous, with linear bracts 1-2 mm long. Flowers with the calyx cupular, shallowly 5-dentate, (6-)7-9(-13) mm long, 4-7(-10) mm wide (in Bahia as small as 4 x 3 mm), always more or less puberulous though sometimes very sparsely so; corolla light purple, tubular-campanulate above a narrow basal tube, (4-)5-7.5(-8.5) cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide at the mouth, the lobes 0.5-1.5 cm long, the tube 3.5-7 cm long, varyingly puberulous usually with both simple and gland-tipped trichomes outside and on lobes, inside densely glandular villous at the stamen insertion, also usually with scattered long simple trichomes along nerves; stamens didynamous, the anthers dithecate, each theca 2 mm long, the long staminode ca. 4 cm long, subexserted, the apex slightly enlarged, densely glandular villous at apex and near middle, sparsely so with shorter hairs elsewhere; ovary flattened-ovate, 2 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, glabrous; disk short-cylindric, 1 mm long, 2 mm wide. Fruit elliptic to oblong-obovate, thinly woody, (5-)6-9.5 cm long, 3-5.6 cm wide (l:w = 1.5-2.2), the margin not at all or slightly undulate at dehiscence, glabrous, drying brownish gray to blackish; seeds smallbodied with a surrounding elliptic or suborbicular wing, 1-1.6 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, the wing hyaline-membranaceous with brownish striations at base, not sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
An extremely polymorphic species, characterized by usually 4-6 pinnae pairs per leaf, relatively large flowers, frequently serrate leaflet margins, and the usual presence of tufts of hairs in the secondary nerve axils below. The northern coastal populations from Pernambuco and Bahia tend to have smaller flowers and calyces, slightly undulate fruit margins, and lack the axillary hairs, but the single Ceará collection examined is completely typical with well-developed axillary trichomes and straight fruit margins. Plants from the Vitoria da Conquista area have slightly thicker leaflets with the main veins beneath distinctly more puberulous; this form has been recognized as J. violacea. Forms from the cerrado area of Goias, D.F., and the Serra do Roncador (plus 1 collection from Minas Gerais (Serra Grão Mogul)) are only distinct from J. caroba by an act of faith. These plants have more coriaceous leaflets with generally blunter apices than other populations of J. puberula and have previously been included in J. caroba by Morawetz (1982) and Gentry (in herb.); however, they are morphologically differentiable in having distinctly puberulous leaf midveins below and ecologically differentiated by occurring in gallery forest (also in the caatinga-cerrado transition) rather than open cerrado. If these two forms are not specifically distinct, then J. caroba itself would have to be regarded as an extreme form of J. puberula. There is also one collection of this form from coastal Bahia (Santos 2282). The lectotypification of J. puberula on Sellow s.n. (K No. HI3281/74 (MO photo 4282) (Sandwith & Hunt, 1974) takes precedence over that of Morawetz based on the HAL duplicate. We here reduce four species to the synonymy of J. puberula for the first time. Despite the lack of a type collection, J. paulistana can only be this species from the description of the leaves as large, glabrous, more or less 7-jugate, with leaflets attenuate at base and apex and with dentate margins. Jacaranda gloxiniiflora has been identified with J. caroba but it came from Santa Catarina where this is the only species with serrate leaflets. Jacaranda hebephora is the cerrado gallery forest form of J. puberula with blunt leaflet apices, and J. violacea is a slightly more puberulous variant of this same form from the mato de cipo/caatinga interface; one recent collection from coastal Bahia is also referable to this form.
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Common Names
caroba, carobinha
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Objects
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Distribution
Widespread through most of the Mata Atlantica formation from Misiones, Argentina and Rio Grande do Sul to Bahia, Pernambuco, and coastal Ceara, occurring in Auracaria forest, coastal evergreen forest, semideciduous forest, montane forest, and even in arborescent cerrado, 0-1300 m alt.
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