Tabebuia alba (Cham.) Sandwith
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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. Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul, Sellow s.n. (B*; lectotype, HBG).
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Synonyms
Tecoma alba Cham., Handroanthus albus (Cham.) Mattos
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Description
Species Description - Tree to 25 m, usually small and flowering when (3-)6-8 m tall, the twigs terete, longitudinally striate, when young densely covered with a fine yellowish-tan tomentum, this glabrescent on old branches. Leaves palmately 5-7(-9) foliolate, the leaflets narrowly elliptic to ovate or obovate, acute to short-acuminate at apex, rounded to broadly cuneate at base, conspicuously and evenly serrate, 5-25 cm long, 2-12 cm wide, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, strongly discolorous, dark above and silvery tan below, densely and persistently finely tomentose with pale dendroid trichomes below, sometimes with scattered black gland dots near the midvein, above more sparsely dendroid pubescent when young, but becoming more or less glabrate at maturity except for scattered lepidote scales; petiolules 0.5-9 cm long (usually even the basal petiolules at least 1.5 cm long), the petiole 3.5-36 cm long, finely dendroid puberulous to glabrescent. Inflorescence an open terminal panicle, often to 30 cm across, densely whitish lanose-puberulous with dendroid trichomes, the bracts and bracteoles caducous. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, densely lanose-villous with light tan dendroid trichomes, 17-30 mm long, 9-15(-18 in Mosen 3981) mm wide, irregularly 5-lobed; corolla yellow, tubular-infundibuliform, 6-18 cm long, 1.5-3 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 4-6.5 cm long, the lobes 1.5-2 cm long, glabrous outside except in sinuses of the corolla lobes, inside villous on throat ridges with mostly long simple trichomes; stamens didynamous, the filaments 1.5-2.5 cm long, the anther thecae divaricate, ca. 2 mm long; pistil 3-4.5 cm long, the ovary ellipsoid-cylindric, 5 mm long, 2 mm wide, glabrous except for scattered minute lepidote scales. Fruit linear, terete, 25-50 cm long, 1-1.7 cm wide, finely longitudinally striate, rather finely tomentose with dendroid trichomes, densely when young, sometimes sparsely at maturity, varying from light tan when young to more or less rufescent; seeds thin, bialate, 0.6-0.9 cm long, 2.3-3 cm wide, the hyaline wings clearly demarcated from brownish seed body.
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Discussion
A collection from Minas Gerais (Mosén 3981) has the typical multifoliolate leaves with sharply serrate densely white tomentose leaflets of T. alba but a more contracted inflorescence with broader (15-18 mm wide) woolly lanose calyces with, in part, simple trichomes 2-3 mm long. Presumably this is only a local variant. It might also be a mixture of flowering material of T. vellosoi with a detached leaf of T. alba.
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Common Names
ipe-da-serra, ipe-man-dioca, ipe-branco, ipe-vacariano, ipe-amarelo, ipe-mamono, ipe pardo, ipe, aipe, pau-d’arco-amarelo, lapacho, lapacho amarillo
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Distribution
Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro to Rio Grande do Sul and Misiones, Argentina; mostly in subtropical forest, especially in the Araucaria zone; 300-1100 m.
Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America| Rio Grande do Sul Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Paraguay South America| Alto Paraná Paraguay South America| Argentina South America| Misiones Argentina South America|