Tabebuia donnell-smithii Rose

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tabebuia donnell-smithii Rose

  • Type

    Type. Guatemala. Escuintla, Donnell-Smith 2070 (US).

  • Synonyms

    Cybistax donnell-smithii Seibert, Cybistax millsii Miranda, Roseodendron donnell-smithii (Rose) Miranda, Roseodendron millsii (Miranda) Miranda, Tabebuia millsii (Miranda) A.H.Gentry

  • Description

    Species Description - Tree to 35 m tall, the twigs subtetragonal, striate-wrinkled, glabrate. Leaves palmately 5-7-fo-liolate, the leaflets oblong-elliptic, acute to acuminate, the base truncate, to 28 cm long and 14 cm wide, usually smaller, serrate to entire or subentire, membranaceous to chartaceous, minutely scattered lepidote, puberulent below with mostly simple trichomes or more or less glabrate, usually with at least a few branched and simple trichomes along main veins below and midvein above, drying dark olive above, lighter olive below; petiolules to 7 cm long, the petiole to 26 cm long, mostly glabrate. Inflorescence an open terminal panicle with a well-developed central rachis, the lateral branches usually branching, rachis and branches puberulous with mostly capitate trichomes, the bracts and bracteoles narrowly lanceolate to 1 cm long. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, 10-18 mm long, 5-12 mm wide, thinly membranaceous, irregularly bilabiate to 5-dentate, somewhat lepidote and puberulous with gland-tipped trichomes; corolla yellow, tubular-infundibuliform, 4.5-6 cm long, 1.2-1.8 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 3.8-4.5 cm long, the lobes 1-2 cm long, tube sparsely pubescent with glandular-lepidote scales and short gland-tipped trichomes, lobes almost glabrous, with a few scattered trichomes, tube inside glabrous except near level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, the thecae divaricate, 2 mm long; pistil ca. 2.5 cm long, the ovary linear-oblong, 3.5-5 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, densely and minutely lepidote-papillate, the ovules ca. 6-seriate in each locule; disk annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide. Fruit an elongate-linear capsule, 25-45 cm long, 1.4-3 cm wide, irregularly costate with 8-12 rather irregular longitudinal ribs, sparsely puberulous with minute, mostly unbranched sometimes gland-tipped trichomes, especially along the ridges; seeds thin, 0.9-1.2 cm long, 1.6-2.1 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, completely surrounding and very sharply demarcated from the brownish seed body.

  • Discussion

    Uses. Widely used as a timber tree. Extensively planted in moist parts of coastal Ecuador and more sporadically elsewhere. Additional material now available convinces me that T. millsii should not be recognized as specifically distinct. The characters in fruit width, number of leaflets, and leaflet margin are all variable even within populations. It is noteworthy that the disjunct Venezuelan population is intermediate between the two Mexican forms. The recent discovery of this species in northern Colombia narrows the peculiar range disjunction from northern Central America to northern South America.

  • Common Names

    primavera, Palo bianco, copal, cortez, cortez bianco, comida de culebra, cacho de venado, white mahagony, primavera

  • Distribution

    Mexico to El Salvador and Honduras; disjunct in central Bolívar, Venezuela, with one sterile collection from Córdoba, Colombia; sea level to 900 m elevation.

    Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Colima Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Nayarit Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Tabasco Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Escuintla Guatemala Central America| Retalhuleu Guatemala Central America| Suchitepéquez Guatemala Central America| Zacapa Guatemala Central America| El Salvador Central America| San Miguel El Salvador Central America| Sonsonate El Salvador Central America| Colombia South America| Córdoba Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America|