Tabebuia moaensis Britton
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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. Cuba. Guantánamo (Oriente): Camp La Gloria, S of Sierra Moa, 24-30 Dec 1910 (fl), Shafer 8264 (holotype, NY).
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Synonyms
Tabebuia pachyphylla Britton, Tabebuia litoralis Urb., Tabebuia excisa Urb., Tabebuia potamophila Urb., Tabebuia wrightii Urb., Tabebuia zolyomiana Borhidi
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree to 10 m tall, dichotomously branched, the branchlets generally subterete, sometimes slightly 4-angled, flattened at nodes, rather densely blackish or reddish lepidote, the bark tending to exfoliolate, sometimes with conspicuous whitish lenticels when young. Leaves 3-5(-7)-foliolate (rarely in part simple) the leaflets oblong-elliptic to almost lanceolate-oblong, rounded or obtusely apiculate at apex (occasionally distinctly acuminate: Shafer 1710, Ekman 9105), rounded to subcordate at base, the terminal 3-14 cm long, 1.5-6(-7) cm wide, the laterals similarly shaped but smaller, very strongly coriaceous, the secondary veins plane above, plane or very slightly subprominulous below, microscopically shiny above, with scattered pustular-raised lepidote glandular areas, below with numerous tiny poorly defined whitish scales or papillae and scattered reddish lepidote glands (the tiny whitish scales usually not visible in older leaves), drying gray or darkish olive above, grayish olive or usually reddish olive with lighter secondary veins below, the margins entire, often revolute; terminal petiolule 0.3-4 cm long, the basals subsessile or to 1 cm long; petiole 0.7-8 cm long, always much longer than longest petiolule, thick, shiny and resinous, also with scattered large lepidote trichomes. Inflorescence an open few-flowered terminal panicle, somewhat resinous-shiny, with large sessile peltate scales, the bracts and bracteoles linear, inconspicuous, caducous. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, irregularly 2-3-labiate, 7-18 mm long, 7-9 mm wide, glandular lepidote with dark-drying sessile scales; corolla pink, rather narrowly tubular-infundibuliform, 3-7 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 2.5-5 cm long, the lobes 1-2 cm long, glabrous outside, usually with a few longish trichomes on lobe margin, rather densely scurfy puberulous in throat, villous at level of stamen insertion; stamens deeply included, the thecae divaricate, 3 mm long; ovary linear-oblong, not costate, 4 mm long, 1 mm wide, lepidote; disk annular-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long, 3 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, 4-14 cm long, 7-10 mm wide, each valve rather thin-coriaceous, with strongly raised medial and sutural ribs, lepidote, drying black, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, ca. 5 x 17 mm, the hyaline-membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
This represents a species complex of the serpentine area of eastern Cuba, defined by percoriaceous leaflets with the secondary veins plane or barely prominulous below. Typically the leaflet undersurface dries a characteristic reddish olive. There are forms with large and small leaflets, and with mostly 3-foliolate or mostly 5-foliolate leaves. There are five potentially distinguishable forms: 1) large leaflets, mostly 3-foliolate but in part simple = T. inaequipes; 2) large 3-5(-7)-foliolate leaves = T. pachyphylla (including T. potamophila, and T. excisa); 3) fairly uniformly 3-foliolate leaves with small leaflets = T. litoralis; 4) 5(-7)-foliolate leaves with small to medium-sized leaflets = T. moaensis sensu stricto (including T. wrightii and T. zolyomiana)\ 5) 5-7-foliolate leaves with very narrow (to 8 cm long and 1.5 cm wide), long-petiolulate leaflets = T. elegans. A closely related plant with apparently uniformly simple leaves = T. clementis. The small-leafleted forms have smaller calyces (7-11 mm long vs. 9-18 mm) and slightly shorter fruits (6-12 mm long vs. 7-14) but there is much overlap. Both T. moaensis and T. litoralis are mostly from pineland and seashore vegetation in the Moa area while the large-leafleted forms are mostly from the Sierra de Nipe. However, the material from a third locality, Cerro de Miraflores, Cananova, is intermediate and varies from 5-foliolate with large leaflets to mostly simpleleaved (León et al. 2065), to small, 3-5-foliolate leaves. Moreover, there are a few collections from Moa (e.g., Alain 3305) with leaflets larger than in some Sierra de Nipe specimens. Although the pattern of variation of the Sierra de Nipe collections is very complex, at least some of the specimens from that area (including the types of T. potamophila and T. zolyomiana) are surely conspecific with T. moaensis. At least one individual collection (León et al. 19803) spans the gamut from typical T. moaensis to large leaves like those of T. pachyphylla. I tentatively conclude that T. pachyphylla is best regarded as conspecific with the similarly thick-leaved taxon from lowland serpentine areas. However, T. inaequipes seems worthy of recognition (see under that species). At the other extreme, T. pachyphylla merges into T. shaferi, a somewhat less sclerophyllous-leaved and mostly multifoliolate taxon from higher altitudes in the Sierra Maestra. Whether T. pachyphylla merits recognition as a distinct species intermediate between T. shaferi (including T. oligolepis) on the one hand and T. moaensis sensu lato on the other remains open to question. Also problematic is whether the type of T. shaferi should go with the T. pachyphylla entity or with the cuneate-leafleted slender-petioluled Sierra Maestra population sometimes segregated as T. oligolepis. One collection is not included in the description or exsiccatae. Ekman 9105 (S) from Loma Mensura, Sierra de Nipe has 5-foliolate leaves with distinctive lanceolate to narrowly ovate, coriaceous acuminate leaflets and prominulous secondary veins below; although highly anomalous, this may be an extreme form of T. moaensis.
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Distribution
Endemic to the serpentine area of Holguín Province (formerly part of Oriente), Cuba; from 0-700 m.
Holguín Cuba South America|