Pseudosamanea guachapele (Kunth) Harms

  • 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

    Pseudosamanea guachapele (Kunth) Harms

  • Type

    "Crescit in sylvis, prope Guayaquil Quitensium." — Holotypus, Humboldt & Bonpland 3805 P(HBK)! = photo, NY!

  • Synonyms

    Lysiloma guachapele (Kunth) Benth., , Pithecellobium guachapele (Kunth) J.F.Macbr., Albizia guachapele (Kunth) Dugand, , Albizia longipedata Britton & Rose ex Record, Samanea samanigua Pittier

  • Description

    Species Description - Macrophyllidious, drought-deciduous trees 8-25 (-30) m with roughened trunk 2-8 dm dbh (often precociously fertile), the bark exfoliating in plates, the thick annotinous branchlets angulate by prominent 3- lobed lf-scars, in youth together with lvs and inflorescence silky-pilosulous or -tomentulose with incurved sordid or yellowish hairs to 0.15-0.35 mm, the foliage bicolored, the papery lfts above darker green sublustrous, when mature only thinly puberulent, beneath paler and more densely pubescent (especially along veins), the umbelliform capitula arising single and geminate (rarely temate) from the axil of coevally expanding lvs at early nodes of the current season’s branchlets, the flat brown pubescent papery fruits long-persistent below adult foliage and often after lf-fall, the terminal meristem produced beyond the flowers. Stipules lanceolate 2.5—4.5 mm, caducous long before expansion of associated lf, silky dorsally. Lf-formula (iii—)iv—vi/5—8; lf-stks (9-) 10- 22(-25) cm, the petiole 3-9 cm, at middle 1.2-3 mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments (1.7-)2-4(-5) cm, the shallow ventral groove continuous; nectary at or a little above or below midpetiole, sessile, elliptic or almost round, shallowly concave, thin-margined, 1-2.5 mm diam, in profile 0.2-0.4 mm tall, sometimes a second smaller nectary near it and another at or close to apex of lf-stk, yet smaller ones on 2-3 furthest segments of pinna-rachis; pinnae strongly decrescent proximally, the rachis of the furthest and the antepenultimate ones (5—)6— 10.5(— 12) cm, their longest interfoliolar segments 11-21 (-25) mm; paraphyllidia usually 0, rarely l(-2), and exceptionally the posterior one developed into a small blade; lfts accrescent distally, the discolored pulvinules (0.8-)1.2-2 x 0.25-0.55(-0.7) mm, the blades (disregarding broad terminal pair) subrhombic-obovate from asymmetric, postically rounded and antically cuneate base, broadly rounded or shallowly emarginate at apex, the larger ones (2.3-)2.5-4.7(-5.2) x 1.5-2.4 (-2.8) cm, 1.5-2.2(-2.4) times as long as wide; venation pinnate, the straight or gently incurved midrib subcentric, giving rise on each side to 7-10 major secondary veins brochidodrome shortly within the incipiently revolute margin and these in turn to an open irregular reticulum of veinlets, the whole venation finely prominulous on both faces, more sharply so beneath. Peduncles (2.5-)3-7.5(-8.5) cm; capitula (16-)20-34-fld, the fls strongly heteromorphic, the peripheral subumbellately ascending on slender pedicels, the terminal one much larger and sessile, the clavate or orbicular receptacle at anthesis 2-5 x 2-3.5 mm; bracts linear-oblanceolate 3-5.5 mm, silky dorsally, glabrous within, early dry caducous; perianth of all fls 5-merous or randomly 6-7-merous, greenish or tinged with reddish brown, densely silky-tomentulose externally, the filaments white or greenish-white fading yellowish or finally brown; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel 11-22 x 0.3-0.5(-0.65) mm; calyx narrowly campanulate or vase-shaped from turbinate base, (4—) 4.5-7 mm, the hypanthium ±1 mm deep, solid except for stipe of ovary, the tube (including hypanthium) 3.5-5.8 x 1.6-2.6(-3.4) mm, the ovate, often unequal teeth to (0.6-)0.8-1.9 mm; corolla 9.5-11 mm, the often unequal lobes ±1-3 mm; androecium (16—) 18— 31-merous, (24-)30-42 mm, the stemonozone 0.6-1.7 mm, the tube (4.5-)5-8 mm; ovary stipitate, the stipe as long as hypanthium, the body linear-ellipsoid 3-5.5 mm, densely puberulent, tapering into glabrous style a little longer or shorter than longest filament, at tip not or scarcely dilated, the stigmatic orifice 0.1-0.3 mm diam; TERMINAL FL: calyx cylindro-campanulate 9-15.5 x 3.5-5.5 mm, sometimes contracted at base into an obscure pedicel not longer than wide, the teeth 1.2-2.5 mm; corolla 18-26 mm; androecium 54—110-merous, the longest filaments 4145 mm, the tube a little longer or shorter than the corolla, ±23-25 mm; ovary nonfunctional or rudimentary. Pods solitary or commonly 2-6 per capitulum, sessile, in profile broad-linear, straight or nearly so, at base broadly cuneate or asymmetrically rounded, at apex subtruncate and thence slenderly rostellate, (10-)12-20.5 x 2-3.5 (in Peru -4.6) cm, (10-)12-20-seeded, framed by straight or on adaxial side shallowly undulate, dorsally plane sutures 1.2-2 mm wide, the thin green, finally papery, rufous-brown or discolored valves low-convex over each seed, densely softly puberulent overall, pallid and satiny within, the cavity continuous; dehiscence (on the tree or after falling) through the ventral suture, the valves gently recurving to emit the seeds; funicles subfiliform, once or twice sigmoid at apex; seeds horizontal at middle of pod, attached subsymmetrically at base, narrowly oblong-ellipsoid but plump, moderately compressed, in broad view ±7-10 x 3.7-4.6 mm, the testa when ripe hard, pale bluff or ivory- white, the narrowly U-shaped pleurogram 4.5-6 x 0.9-1.7 mm.

    Distribution and Ecology - In drought-deciduous woodland and at the drier edge of gallery forest, surviving as a shade tree in pastures and along hedgerows, sometimes cultivated, native from near sea level to 550 and in Colombia to 1000 m, interruptedly widespread from S Mexico (Tabasco, Campeche, Chiapas) SE through Central America, mostly on the Pacific slope, to Panama, thence S through inter-Andean valleys of Colombia to Pacific lowland Ecuador and immediately adjacent Peru (Tlimbes), and once recorded (? introduced) from Amazonian Ecuador (near Coca); from N Colombia eastward through N Venezuela, from Zulia through the coastal cordillera and the N slope of the Orinoco basin to Anzoátegui, S to the mouth of Río Meta in Apure and to the lower Caroní Valley in Bolívar; cultivated in Bahia and Sao Paulo, Brazil, in Cameroon, and probably elsewhere. — Map 33. — Fl. at end of dry season, with or just prior to renewal of foliage, in North America mostly XII—III; in South America I-IV, VII-IX.

    Local Names and Uses - Cadeno (Guatemala); carreto (El Salvador; wood used by wheelwrights); guaramillo, samán (Colombia); lara blanca, masaguaro, samanigua, tabaca [taboca] (Venezuela); guachapelí [,guachapelé, huachapelí] (Ecuador).

  • Common Names

    Cadeno, carreto, guaramillo, samán, lara blanca, masaguaro, samanigua, tabaca [taboca], guachapelí [guachapelé, huachapelí]

  • Distribution

    Colombia South America| Tabasco Mexico North America| Campeche Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Guatemala Central America| Honduras Central America| El Salvador Central America| Nicaragua Central America| Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America| Ecuador South America| Tumbes Peru South America| Zulia Venezuela South America| Apure Venezuela South America| Bolívar Venezuela South America|