Albizia berteroana (DC.) Fawc. & Rendle
-
Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
-
Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.
-
Family
Mimosaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Type
"... in Sancto Domingo (Bertero)." — Holotypus, labeled: "St. Domingue, Bertero, misit Balbis, 1821" G-DC (fl, fr)! = NY Neg. 33453.
-
Description
Species Description - Amply microphyllidious trees with smooth or finely cracked bark, flowering when 2.5-4 m but potentially attaining 14 m, the young branchlets, the lf- axes (at least ventrally) and all axes of inflorescence either thinly or densely puberulent with fine pallid, forwardly incurved hairs to 0.1-0.2 mm and often in addition minutely livid-granular, the lvs bicolored, the small firm crowded lfts lustrous dark green (when dry brunnescent) and glabrous on upper face, beneath dull pale green (when dry tan) and proximally pilosulous on anterior side of midrib, the inflorescence a terminal, more or less pyramidal, proximally foliate but distally efoliate panicle of pseudoracemes, the small whitish capitula globose in bud, subhemispherical at anthesis, the ascending or randomly spreading pods long-persistent. Stipules deltate, <0.5 mm, very early deciduous or perhaps sometimes obsolete, lacking from fruiting specimens. Lf-formula vii-xii (-xv)/(32-)35-52(-57); lft-stk of longer lvs (8.5-)10-22 cm, the ventral groove bridged between pinna-pairs, the petiole (2-)3-7 cm, the longer interpinnal segments 8—16(—18) mm; petiolar nectary well below midpetiole but not contiguous to the firm pulvinus, sessile elliptic, shallowly patelliform, in profile commonly 0.2-0.5 mm tall and 1.5-3.2 mm in long diameter (but lacking in random lvs), smaller cupular nectaries between 1-2 distal pairs of pinnae and at tip of each pinna-rachis; pinnae decrescent at base and often toward apex of lf-stk, the rachis of long ones (4.5-)5.5-9(-9.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.7- 2(-2.4) mm; lft-pulvinules in dorsal view 0.2-0.45 mm; lfts gradually decrescent toward each end of rachis, linear or linear-lanceolate from bluntly auriculate base, rounded or obtusely deltate at apex, either straight or very gently either forwardly or backwardly falcate, those near midpinna 5.5-9.5 x 1-2.1 (-2.3) mm, (4—)4.2-6.1 times as long as wide; venation of 2-3 nerves from pulvinule, the dorsally prominulous midrib forwardly displaced at base becoming subcentric at and beyond midblade, giving rise on each side to 2-4(-5) weak subhorizontal secondary venules faintly anastomosing within the plane or dorsally thickened, nearly always ciliolate margin, the posterior primary nerves very short and faint, the whole venation immersed on upper face. Peduncles fasciculate by (2-)3-6, biseriate above each node of pseudoraceme, the longest of each fascicle 3-11 mm; capitula to 12-24-fld, without filaments 6-8 mm diam, the fragrant whitish fls obscurely dimorphic, the perianth of all 5-merous and externally glabrous except for always ciliolate calyx-teeth and sometimes thinly ciliolate corolla-lobes; receptacle subglobose ±1-1.5 mm diam, terminal pedestal 0; bracts obovate or spatulate 0.3-0.7 mm, ciliolate, tardily deciduous; PERIPHERAL FLS: sessile or contracted at cuneate base into a thick pedicel <1 mm, the campanulate or turbinate-campanulate calyx 1.2-1.5 mm, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.1-0.2 mm; corolla 3.2-4 mm, the erect or recurved, lanceolate lobes ±1.1-1.3 mm; androecium 18-24-merous, (5-)6-8.5 mm, the stemonozone 0.3-0.5 mm, the tube 1.4-2.7 mm; ovary symmetrically conic at apex; style a trifle longer than androecium, the stigma not dilated; TERMINAL FL: sessile, the calyx 1.1-2 x 1.4-1.8 mm; corolla of peripheral fls; stamens as many as in peripheral fls or up to 33, the tube dilated and 3-4 mm long. Pods l-3(-4) per capitulum, in profile broad-linear contracted at base into a stipe or 2-ribbed pseudostipe 3-11 mm, the body when well fertilized (6—)8—13(— 14) x (0.8-) 0.9-1.5(-l.65) cm, straight, piano-compressed becoming low-convex and somewhat discolored over each seed, the papery or toward the sutures thinly pithy valves framed by straight or obscurely undulate sutures ±0.4-0.65 mm wide, at first green becoming light brown, puberulent and livid-granular overall, when ripe developing horizontal fracture-lines between seeds; dehiscence 0, the pod commonly falling entire and breaking on the ground into 8-12 individually indehiscent segments; funicle filiform; seeds transverse at middle of valves, plumply lentiform or discoid 4—6.8 x 3.5-5.5 mm, the smooth, pale tan testa of grapeskin consistency when moistened, very narrowly winged or ridged around the periphery, the pleurogram U-shaped ±2-2.5 mm diam; cotyledons pale green or yellowish tan, concealing the plumule; no endosperm.
Distribution and Ecology - In semideciduous thorn-scrub and open woodland, commonly on limestone, occasionally on serpentine and perhaps other substrates, ascending from coastal lowlands up to 660 m in Jamaica and 700 m in Dominican Republic, widespread and locally plentiful in the Greater Antilles: centr. and E Cuba; Jamaica (mostly on S slope); Hispaniola (widespread). —Map 59.— Fl. (IV)V-IX; fr. long-persistent on branches, sometimes coeval with new fls.
Local Names and Uses - Abey bianco, hoja menuda, moruro bianco (Cuba); candelón, corbano, corbano bianco (Domincan Republic).
-
Discussion
When fresh, the amply multifoliolate leaves of A. berteriana are dark lustrous green on the upper face, a little paler and dull below. The prolific terminal panicles of papery stramineous pods persist at tip of dead leafless branchlets well into the dry season, falling at random, and piling up in windrows under the tree. In drying, the pod valves develop a transverse fracture line between seeds, but disarticulate only reluctantly, and hardly deserve the term lomentiform, less so, in any case, than those of A. subdimidiata and kindred. The inconsiderable genus Pseudalbizzia Britton & Rose was based exclusively on this feature of the fruit.
Seeds of A. berteriana collected at JBSD (Barneby s.n.) had phanerocotylar germination and two, opposite, simply pinnate (10-12-foliolate) eophylls.
-
Common Names
Abey bianco, hoja menuda, moruro bianco, candelón, corbano, corbano bianco
-
Distribution
Jamaica South America| Dominican Republic South America| Cuba South America| Haiti South America|