Albizia glabripetala (H.S.Irwin) G.P.Lewis & P.E.Owen
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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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.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"BRITISH GUIANA. "Orealla," Corantyne R., Oct. 1879, G. S. Jenman 364 ..." — Holotypus, NY!; isotypi, BM!, P! (not found at K in 1990); 4 paratypi: Forest Dept. 5397,5642, Schomburgk 525, Wurdack & Monachino 41263, all NY!
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Synonyms
Pithecellobium glabripetalum H.S.Irwin
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Description
Species Description - Amply microphllyidious trees 5—15(—18) m with almost smooth trunk attaining 2-3 dm dbh and sulcate branchlets, except for sometimes glabrate (never densely pubescent) upper face of lfts finely minutely puberulent throughout with loose pallid hairs 0.1-0.3 mm, the lvs bicolored, the ventrally convex lfts dark olivaceous (brunnescent) and sublustrous above, paler dull beneath, the small hemispherical capitula of whitish fls borne in a simple terminal pseudoraceme or a small few-branched panicle terminal to hornotinous leafy branchlets, not or scarcely exserted from foliage. Stipules (few seen) triangular-subulate 0.4-1 mm, very early caducous. Lf-formula (iv-)v- x/20-35; lf-stks 6-16.5 cm, the petiole 2.5-4.5 cm, at middle 0.9-1.6 mm diam, the ventral groove continuous between pinnae, the longer interpinnal segments 6-12 mm; an elliptic, depressed-cupular nectary near or commonly well below midpetiole, ±1-1.5 mm diam and <0.25 mm tall, rarely also a minute one at tip of some pinna-rachises; pinnae little graduated in length, the rachis of longer ones 5-8.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 1.2-2.2 mm; pulvinules 0.20.4 mm, the lfts appearing sessile against the rachis; lfts equilong except at extreme ends of rachis and the first pair commonly represented by minute subulate paraphyllidia, the blades inequilaterally lance-oblong from postically truncate or semicordate base, at apex deltately subacute and often incipiently porrect, the longer ones 5-8 x 1.4-2.3 mm, 3-3.9 times as long as wide; venation of 3-4 nerves from pulvinule, the straight or almost straight, unbranched, dorsally prominulous and there (on anterior side) barbellate midrib forwardly displaced to divide blade 1:2.3—3.2, the inner posterior nerve produced well beyond midblade before anastomosis, the outer one or two much shorter, tertiary venulation 0, the whole venation weakly bluntly prominulous on upper face, more sharply so beneath. Primary axis of simple pseudoraceme and secondary divisions of panicle ±8-12 cm; peduncles (1—)2—3 per node, the longest of each fascicle mostly 15-25 (at distal nodes somewhat shorter), the capitula 9-22-fld, without filaments 6-7.5 mm diam, the fls dimorphic, the peripheral ones at least shortly pedicellate, the much larger terminal one sessile on a short pedestal, the whole receptacle 1-2 mm; bracts minute, ciliolate; perianth of all fls 5-merous, or the terminal fl 6- merous, glabrous except for microscopically ciliolate calyx-teeth, or for a few minute scattered hairs on corolla-lobes; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel 0.2-1.2 mm; calyx campanulate 0.7-1 x 0.8-0.9 mm, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.1-0.2 mm; corolla greenish white or faintly anthocyanic 2.8-3.2 mm, the ovate lobes 1.2-1.5 x 0.8-0.9 mm; androecium 15-16- merous, white, the longer filaments 10.5-12 mm, the stemonozone ±0.5 mm, the tube ±1.5 mm; ovary glabrous, conical at apex; style a little longer than longer filaments, scarcely dilated at the stigma; TERMINAL FL: sessile; calyx 1.4-1.6 x 1.4 mm; corolla 3.4-4.7 mm; androecium 20-22-merous, the stemonozone ±1 mm, the tube 3.5-7.5 x 1.2-1.3 mm, the free portion of filaments dilated and arched outward. Pods 1 or 2 per peduncle, sessile but often contracted basally, due to abortion of first seed, into a short sterile neck, in profile broad-linear, at apex broadly obtuse-apiculate, when well fertilized 11-18 x 1.5-2.2 cm, 10-14- seeded, piano-compressed becoming low-convex over each seed and depressed between them, the stiffly papery, dark brown, when young venulose valves framed by obtuse, scarcely or not constricted sutures ±1 mm wide, either glabrous (in Guyana) or finely minutely strigulose (in Brazil), when mature transversely cracking between seeds; dehiscence not seen, much delayed or the seeds perhaps released only by weathering, the apparent segments not liberated from the wiry sutures; seeds (few seen) transverse, basifixed on a filiform funicle, in broad profile 7x 5 mm, the hard testa bone-white, smooth but dull, closely investing the horny biconvex embryo, the inversely U-shaped pleurogram ±2 mm diam.
Distribution and Ecology - In low, seasonally flooded woodland, sometimes with Mauritia palms, on creek and river banks, and at edge of white sand savanna, below 200 m, seemingly uncommon about the periphery of the Guayana Highland in T. F. Amazonas (Esmeralda) and state of Bolívar (Río Suapure; Foráneo La Urbana), Venezuela, on the upper Rupununi and middle Courantyne rivers in Guyana (and presumably adjoining Surinam), and on upper Río Branco (Ilha de Maracá) in N state of Roraima, Brazil. — Map 60. — Fl. IX-I.
Local Names and Uses - Angico (Brazil); manariballi (Guyana).
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Discussion
Albizia glabripetala has been recognized from the first as closely related to the widespread and rather variable A. niopoides from which it differs most clearly in the tardily segmented valves of the pod and lack of wing along its ventral suture. Slightly fewer stamens and, on the average, fewer leaflets also, are weak supporting characters. It is more readily distinguished from allopatric A. polycephala, to which Bentham referred the earliest collection (Schomburgk 525), by the glabrate, not silky-pilosulous perianth.
A single large tree (±15 m, 8 dm dbh) in Reserva Ecologica de Maracá (Roraima), sampled both in flower (Lewis 1652, NY) and in fruit (Lewis 1533, NY), differs from typical A. glabripetala, which is also recorded from Ilha de Maracá (Milliken 88, NY), in these characters and is provisionally excluded from our description of the species: relatively ample, oblong-elliptic leaflets to 10x4 mm; capitula to 7 per node of inflorescence; peripheral flowers subsessile and a trifle larger (calyx ±2 mm and corolla to 4.2 mm); androecium of peripheral flowers to 22-merous; pod smaller and narrower (7-8 x 1.1 cm). It is perhaps a distinct taxon, needing further observation.
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Common Names
Angico, Manariballi
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Distribution
Amazonas Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Roraima Brazil South America| Suriname South America|