Tabebuia schumanniana Urb.

  • 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 schumanniana Urb.

  • Type

    Type. Puerto Rico. Prope Utuado, Sintenis 6500 (holotype, B; isotypes, BM, BR, C, G, GH 2, HAC, HBG, K, L, M, MO, NY, S 3, US).

  • Synonyms

    Tecoma schumanniana (Urb.) Urb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Small tree 2-5 m (-8 m fide Little et al., 1974) tall, the branchlets irregularly subtetragonal, vertically ridged, elenticellate, lepidote, the leaf scars with raised bases. Leaves unifoliolate, opposite, usually clustered towards branch tips, obovate to oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse to rounded at apex, obtusely cuneate at base, 3-21 cm long, 1-8 cm wide, coriaceous, the margin very slightly revolute, lepidote or lepidote-punctate, inconspicuously above, conspicuously but not densely below, with a glandular area at base of midvein, drying olive to olive-brown, brochidodromous; petioles 0.5-3 cm long, lepidote. Inflorescence a few terminal flowers, the pedicels (1.5-)3-6 cm long, lepidote, usually unbranched, with a pair of 2-5 mm long linear bracteoles near middle, subtended by linear bracts to 1 cm long, occasionally forked. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, bilabiate, 9-20 mm long, 6-10 mm wide, lepidote, drying blackish; corolla red, more or less tubular-salverform, 4-5.5 cm long, 0.60.9 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 3-4 cm long, the lobes ca. 1 cm long, completely glabrous except for dense glandular trichomes at level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous, at least the longer pair subexserted, insertion 3-4 mm from base of tube, the thecae divaricate, thick, 3 mm long; pistil 3-3.5 cm long, the ovary linear, somewhat tetragonal, densely lepidote, 4-6 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide; disk broadly patelliform, 1 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. Fruit (in part from Little et al., 1974) linear, terete, 9-17 cm long, 0.8-1 cm diam., lepidote, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 5-6 mm long, 2-3 cm wide, the wings hyaline-membranaceous, sharply demarcated from the brown seed body.

  • Discussion

    Specimens from Cerro de la Punta, Bosque Toro Negro, approach T. rigida in leaf shape and thickness but have the patelliform disk and generally unbranched inflorescence of this species.

  • Common Names

    roble colorado, roble de sierra, roble cimarrón

  • Distribution

    Mountains of western and central Puerto Rico; locally common in dwarf and montane forests from 500 to 1500 m.

    Puerto Rico South America|