Tabebuia haemantha (Bertero ex Spreng.) A.DC.
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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. Puerto Rico. Bertero s.n. (lectotype, G-DC; isotype, MO).
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Synonyms
Bignonia haemantha Bertero ex Spreng., Tecoma haemantha (Bertol. ex Spreng.) Griseb., Spathodea portoricensis Bello
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Description
Species Description - Small tree 2-6 m, dichotomously branched, the branchlets terete, lepidote. Leaves 3-5-foliolate, the leaflets oblong-elliptic, rounded to retuse or acutish at apex, rounded to subcordate at base, the terminal 4-17 cm long, 2.2-7 cm wide, the basals 1.5-8 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, strongly coriaceous, the venation macroscopically plane above, the secondary veins raised below, the lower surface somewhat irregular, very minutely sparsely and glabrescently reddish-lepidote, at least below, variable in color from olive to brownish, usually drying with a somewhat reddish tinge, mostly somewhat lighter below, the margins entire; terminal petiolule 0.5-2.5(-5) cm long, the basals subsessile to 0.5(-1) cm long, the petiolule 0.5-2.5(-5) cm long, the basals subsessile to 0.5(-l) cm long, the petiole 1-7 cm long, sparsely minutely reddish lepidote. Inflorescence a several-many-flowered terminal panicle, often on a leafless branch, blackish-lepidote. Flowers with the calyx narrowly campanulate, irregularly 2(-3)-labiate, 8-16 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, blackish-lepidote, corolla red, salverform-tubular, 4-4.5 cm long, 0.6-0.9 cm wide, the tube 3.5-4 cm long, the lobes 0.5-1 cm long, glabrous outside, the lobes slightly or not at all ciliate, very inconspicuously scurfy-puberulous in throat, long villous at level of stamen insertion; stamens exserted or subexserted, the thecae barely divergent, ca. 3 mm long; ovary linear, tetragonal, 3 mm long, 1 mm wide, densely lepidote; disk patelliform-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 2 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, 4.5-9.2 cm long, 6-12 mm wide, strongly longitudinally striate-costate, minutely lepidote, drying dark, the calyx persistent or caducous; seeds thin, bialate, 6-7 mm long, 20-29 mm wide, the hyaline-membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
Highly variable vegetatively but with extremely homogeneous, presumably hummingbird-pollinated, flowers. The leaves can usually be told from those of T. heterophylla by being somewhat more coriaceous, having a more truncate base, and the reduction of the lepidote indument to sparse minute reddish scales. Tabebuia haemantha can be distinguished from the other two red-flowered Puerto Rican Tabebuia species by its compound leaves.
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Common Names
roble bobo
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Objects
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Distribution
Endemic to the moist limestone and serpentine areas of western Puerto Rico: 50-850 m elevation.
Puerto Rico South America|