Tabebuia ophiolithica Alain
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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. Dominican Republic. Espallat: 4 mi E of Gaspar Hernández, 50 m, 28 Sep 1969 (ft), Liogier 16148 (holotype, NY; isotypes, BM, IJ, US).
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small tree 1.5-5 m tall, irregularly dichotomously branched but with strong tendency for development of thick short-shoot at apex of dichotomy, the branchlets somewhat angled, flattened at nodes, more or less lepidote, the bark usually rather wrinkled and splitting, never conspicuously lenticellate. Leaves 3-5-foliolate, the leaflets oblong-elliptic, rounded or apiculate at apex, rounded to subcordate at base (the basal pair strongly asymmetric), 4-17(-21) cm long, 2-7(-9) cm wide, if 5-foliolate, the lowermost leaflet pair usually much smaller (2-6 x 1-4 cm) and subsessile, very strongly coriaceous, the secondary venation macroscopically plane or slightly impressed above, prominulous below, very sparsely and inconspicuously minutely lepidote above, below sparsely to noticeably minutely lepidote or lepidote glandular, drying olive, sometimes slightly darker above, the margins entire; terminal petiolule 0.2-2 cm long, the basals subsessile to 1 cm long, the petiole 0.5-1.5(-2) cm long, very thick, conspicuously lepidote to very minutely and inconspicuously lepidote. Inflorescence a short-shoot fascicle of terminal flowers or with some pedicels bifurcate, the basal short shoot thick and conspicuously subulate-bracteate, the pedicels more or less glandular lepidote with black-drying scales. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, irregularly bilabiate or 2-5-dentate, 10-14 mm long, 7-9 mm wide, blackish lepidote; corolla pink to magenta, infundibuli-formcampanulate, 3.5-4(-5.5 fide Alain) cm long, 0.8-1.4 cm wide, the tube 2.5-3.5 cm long, the lobes ca. 1 cm long, glabrous outside, the lobes inconspicuously and incompletely ciliate, inconspicuously scurfy puberulous in throat, not villous at level of stamen insertion; stamens deeply included, the thecae divaricate, 3 mm long; ovary linear-oblong, conspicuously longitudinally costate, 4 mm long, 1.3 mm wide, minutely lepidote-glandular; disk annular-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long, 3 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, 6.5-18 cm long, 18-10 mm wide, strongly longitudinally striate-costate, densely lepidote, drying dark brownish, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, the hyaline-membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
This species is vegetatively very like Puerto Rican T. haemantha and southern Dominican T. crispiflora in the thick coriaceous leaves with reduced petioles and petiolules. It differs from both by the light pink to magenta flower, typically infundibuliform-campanulate, with deeply included anthers and divaricate thecae. It differs from the Cuban equivalents in the shorter, thicker petioles (large-leafleted forms of T. moaensis) and non-bullate leaflets (T. pinetorum). Additional differences from T. crispiflora include lack of conspicuous lenticels on young growth, reduced inflorescence on bracteate short shoots, and absence of long trichomes near filament attachment. Although compared by Liogier (1971) with T. conferta, it is actually not very close to that large-leafleted long-petioled species. All of these species are pilose at the filament insertion, unlike T. ophiolitica.
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Objects
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Distribution
Endemic to serpentine outcrops of northern Dominican Republic, 10-50 m altitude; known only from two localities at both of which it is locally common.
Dominican Republic South America| Espaillat Dominican Republic South America| Puerto Plata Dominican Republic South America|