Tabebuia revoluta (Urb.) Britton

  • 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 revoluta (Urb.) Britton

  • Type

    Type. Dominican Republic. La Vega: La Vega, Jarabacoa, 700 m, Jun 1912 (fl), Fuertes 1804 (lectotype, NY; isotypes, BM, FI, K).

  • Synonyms

    Tecoma revoluta Urb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Shrub or small tree 2-5 m tall, dichotomously branched, sometimes densely so, the branchlets irregularly angled, usually raised at petiolar attachments, lepidote. Leaves 3-5-foliolate, the leaflets narrowly elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate (rarely obovate: Jimenez 781), rounded or retuse at apex (rarely merely obtuse: Ekman 15124), cuneate at base, the terminal 2.5-11 cm long, 0.7-4 cm wide, the basals 2-5 cm long, 0.6-2.2(-3) cm wide and usually subsessile, very coriaceous, usually with strongly revolute margins, slightly discolorous, more or less olive above and tannish olive below, glabrous or inconspicuously lepidote-punctate above, below densely lepidote with whitish scales, also with scattered reddish brown scales, conspicuously brochidodromous, midvein impressed above, the secondary veins raised below, plane or slightly impressed above, tertiary venation subprominulous below, not at all conspicuous nor noticeably reticulate; petiolules 0-1.5 cm long, petioles 1-4 cm long, lepidote with both light and dark scales. Inflorescence of one or two terminal flowers, the pedicels lepidote, usually with a subulate bracteole at or below middle. Flowers with the calyx irregularly shallowly 2-3-labiate, 8-10 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, densely lepidote (some of the scales sometimes substipitate), drying dark; corolla deep red or crimson even inside throat, tubular-infundibuliform to almost salverform, 2-4 cm long, 0.5-1.3 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 1.5-2.5 cm long, the lobes ca. 0.5 cm long, glabrous outside and inside except for glandular trichomes at base of filaments, the lobes inconspicuously and minutely ciliate with short thick glandular trichomes; stamens didynamous, the filaments 0.5-1.5 cm long, the anther thecae divaricate, ca. 2 mm long; pistil ca. 2 cm long, the large lamellate stigmas ca. 2 mm x 1 mm; ovary linear-oblong, tetragonal-angled, 3 mm long, 1 mm wide, densely lepidote; disk annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Fruit a fusiform-cylindric capsule, long-tapered at each end, 10-11 cm long, 5-8 mm wide, inconspicuously longitudinally ribbed, lepidote, the seeds thin, bialate, 6-7 mm long, 1.5-2.3 cm wide, the hyaline membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.

  • Discussion

    Most similar to T. maxonii, which has a similarly glabrous corolla interior and narrow leaflets, but differs from that species by the cuneate and petiolulate leaflet bases and narrow darker red corolla tube. Differs from sympatric T. berteroi most conspicuously in the different flower color and shape and also in having the leaflets not densely whitish below.

  • Objects

    Specimen - 114905, M. D. Fuertes Lorén 1804, Tecoma revoluta Urb., Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta, isotype; West Indies, Dominican Republic, La Vega

    Specimen - 01320512, A. H. Liogier 11078, Tabebuia revoluta (Urb.) Britton, Bignoniaceae (293.0), Magnoliophyta; West Indies, Dominican Republic, La Vega

  • Distribution

    Endemic to the Jarabacoa region of La Vega Province, Dominican Republic between (260-)500 and 1200 m, where it is extremely common locally as a dominant understory element in pine forest.

    Dominican Republic South America| La Vega Dominican Republic South America|