Tabebuia pallida (Lindl.) Miers
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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. St. Vincent. Cultivated, Caley s.n. (not seen, type illustration, Lindley, Bot. Reg. 12, Tab. 965).
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Synonyms
Bignonia pallida Lindl., Bignonia cranalis E.H.L.Krause, Tabebuia dominicensis Urb., Tabebuia pallida subsp. dominicensis (Urb.) Stehlé, Tabebuia heterophylla subsp. dominicensis (Urb.) Stehlé, Tabebuia heterophylla subsp. pallida (Lindl.) Stehlé
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Description
Species Description - Small to usually large tree, to 35 m tall (fide Stehle), dichotomously branched, the branchlets terete to subtetragonal, lepidote with small whitish sessile scales. Leaves unifoliolate, occasionally in part 3-foliolate, the leaflet oblong-elliptic, rounded to obtuse at apex, rounded to truncate at base, 4-20 cm long, 3-12 cm wide, coriaceous, lepidote above and below with small whitish peltate scales, sometimes also with a few scattered reddish ones below, olive to brownish, more or less concolorous, not very strongly brochidodromous, the surface more or less plane above and below; petiole 0.8-7 cm long, lepidote. Inflorescence terminal, few-several-flowered, the pedicels long and slender, lepidote with somewhat reddish sessile trichomes, with caducous bracteoles in lower half of pedicel. Flowers with the calyx cupular, irregularly 2-4-labiate, 10-17 mm long, 8-12 mm wide, rather sparsely lepidote with sessile peltate scales, drying blackish or blackish toward base and brownish toward apex; corolla lavender, tubular-infundibuliform, 5-8 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, tube 3-6 cm long, lobes 1.5-2 cm long, glabrous outside, rather strongly scurfy pubescent in throat, strongly villous at level of stamen insertion, the lobes more or less ciliate; anthers held in lower part of tube, the thecae divaricate, 3 mm long; ovary linear, somewhat tetragonal, densely lepidote, 5 mm long, 1 mm wide; disk annular-pulvinate, 1.5 mm long, 3 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, 11-23 cm long, 8-11 mm wide, the valves inconspicuously longitudinally striate-costate, densely lepidote, drying darkish, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 5-8 mm long, 20-25 mm wide, the hyaline-membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from body.
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Discussion
Uses. The wood used for furniture and construction. Very tenuously distinguished from T. heterophylla by the larger, mostly uniformly 1-foliolate leaves (occasionally a few 3-foliolate) and (according to Stehle, 1946, who knew the plants in the field) the larger size (>20 m vs. <20 m) and usually shorter petiole (4-6 vs. 6-10 cm long). It is ecologically separated from T. heterophylla which occurs on the same islands but mostly on the drier leeward sides; however, the two intergrade and it is probable that T. pallida is not a true biological species. However, according to Stehle (1945) the wood of this species is lighter and less fibrous than that of T. heterophylla, the leaves are thicker and fleshier rather than coriaceous, the fruits are longer and thicker, and the corolla tends to be paler with a more undulating margin.
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Common Names
poirier gris, poirier frise, poirier canelle, poirier du Nord, poirier du pays, poirier, white wood, white cedar
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Objects
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Distribution
Endemic to the Lesser Antilles: Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, the Grenadines, St. Lucia, St. Vincent. On the larger islands, mostly on the wet windward slope where it can be the dominant species, constituting ca. 35% of the forest (Stehle, 1945); mostly below 100 m elevation.
Barbados South America| Guadeloupe South America| Dominica South America| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines South America| Grenada South America| Martinique South America| Saint Lucia South America|