Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.

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

Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr.

Type

Described from plants grown at Vienna from seeds "ex patria Caracas [Venezuela]." — Typus, W, not seen, but the illustrated protologue decisive.

Synonyms

Mimosa saman Jacq., Inga saman Willd., , Calliandra saman (Jacq.) Griseb., , Feuilleea saman (Jacq.) Kuntze, Enterolobium saman (Jacq.) Prain, Zygia saman (Jacq.) Lyons

Description

Species Description - Macrophyllidious trees of potentially great age and size, flowering as treelets but becoming 25(-30), exceptionally 40-50 m tall with short stout trunk to 2(-3) m dbh and broad low crown nearly twice as wide as high, the efoliate annotinous branchlets fuscous, either lenticellate or not, the hornotinous branchlets, all lf-axes and peduncles densely pilosulous with fine whitish, either straight spreading or shorter incumbent hairs to 0.2-0.7 mm, the lvs bicolored, the lfts dark-olivaceous, glabrous and lustrous on upper face, beneath pallid dull and pilosulous, the young inflorescences yellowish tomentulose, the umbelliform capitula fasciculate by 2-5 in the axil of coevally expanding or quickly hysteranthous lvs and early immersed in foliage, the fruits persistent for nearly a year on the tree, falling as the new growth starts, the new branchlets arising from lateral buds below the determinate inflorescence of the new year. Stipules herbaceous, lanceolate or oblanceolate 2.5-7 mm, densely pilosulous, caducous with expansion of the subtended lf. Lf-formula iii—vi(—vii)/6—8(—9); lf-stks of fully developed lvs (4.5-)6-25 cm, the petiole 3-7.5(-8.5) cm, at middle 1.4-3 mm diam, the ventral groove open and shallow, the first interpinnal segment (1.2-)1.7-4.7 cm, the further ones progressively shorter; petiolar nectaries close below first, furthest, and often all pinna-pairs, sessile, shallowly cupular thick-rimmed, in ventral view round or bluntly triangular (distorted, didymous), the first one 0.8-1.4 mm diam, similar but smaller nectaries on pinna-rachises close below each lft-pair; pinnae strongly accrescent distally, the rachis of furthest and penultimate pairs 6-14.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 10-22(-25) mm; minute membranous para- phyllidia caducous from small scars at apex of corrugate, ventrally sulcate pinna-pulvini; lft-pulvinules 1—1.7(—2) x 0.5-1 (-1.2) mm; lfts conspicuously accrescent distally, all but the rhombic-obovate and largest terminal pair obtusely rhombic-oblong or -elliptic from inequilateral base, obtuse but sometimes minutely mucronulate, the blades of penultimate pair (20-)24-62 x (8-) 10-25(-27) mm, (1.9-) 2.1-2.8 times as long as wide; venation pinnate, the subcentric, either straight diagonal or more often gently incurved midrib giving rise on each side to (7-)8- 12(—13) widely incurved-ascending secondary veins brochidodrome within the narrowly revolute margin, these in turn generating a tertiary and reticulate venulation, the costa, secondary and tertiary venules of fully mature lfts prominulous dorsally, on upper face more finely so and the areoles of the reticulum smaller. Peduncles (3.5-)4-8.5 cm, woody in fruit; capitula hemispherical (12—) 15—22(—25)-fld; bracts 3-7 x 1-2.3 mm, dimorphic, the lowest lance- or oblance-elliptic, the interfloral ones spatulate, the linear claw abruptly expanded into a rhombic blade, all deciduous at anthesis, when young folded over and concealing the young fl-buds; fls dimorphic, the peripheral ones at least shortly pedicellate, the terminal one stout, sessile, the perianth of all 5-6-, or that of terminal fl 5-9-merous, densely yellowish pilosulous-tomentulose overall (the corolla tube sometimes glabrescent); PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel compressed, to l-3.5(-5.5) x 0.3-0.6(-0.7) mm; calyx slenderly vase-shaped (4.4-)4.8-7(-7.8) x 1.3-2 mm, the deltate-ovate obtuse, often unequal teeth 0.6-1.3 mm; corolla 9—13(—13.5) mm, slenderly trumpet-shaped, the lobes (often unequal) up to 1.4-3.7 x 1-1.7 mm; androecium (18—)21—30(—32)- merous, (26-)28-37(-42) mm long, the filaments white proximally, pink or red distally, the stemonozone 1.2-2.1 mm, the tube 5-7.5(-8) mm; ovary obscurely stipitate, linear-ellipsoid, on each face shallowly grooved lengthwise, prior to fertilization minutely papillate or puberulent in upper third, becoming when fertile densely pallid-tomentulose; style a trifle longer than longest filament, the stigma commonly porose, rarely dilated to 0.25 mm diam; TERMINAL FL: sessile, the calyx (5.5-)7-10.2 x 2.5-4.3 mm, the teeth 1-1.6 mm; corolla 9.5-14.5 mm, the lobes ± 3-3.5 mm; androecium ±50-80-merous, the tube (7.5—)9—13 x 1.8-2.6 mm, a little shorter or longer than corolla, the free part of filaments proximally dilated and recurved. Pods 1 (-2) per capitulum, broad-linear abruptly contracted at base into a short neck and as abruptly cuspidate at apex, compressed but plumply fleshy, when well fertilized straight or almost so and 10-22 x (1.4—) 1.7—2.3 x 0.6-1 cm, (10-) 12-20-seeded, coarsely bicarinate by plane or shallowly sulcate, woody sutures ±2.5-3.5 mm wide, the low-convex valves consisting of (a) thin, continuous, when dry papery, livid-castaneous or blackish, somewhat lustrous, irregularly crumpled, glabrate or minutely puberulent exocarp; (b) thin crustaceous endocarp, adherent between seeds to form discreet seed-cavities but not septiferous; and (c) thick alveolate mesocarp filled with black, when dry pitchlike (sweet, nutritious) pulp; dehiscence 0, the seeds released only by weathering or predators, and passing undigested through the gut of cattle and other herbivores; seeds transverse, obliquely basifixed on slender funicle, plumply oblong-ellipsoid, 8-11.5 x 5-7.5 mm, the smooth castaneous (or, especially within the pleurogram, fuscous) testa leathery-crustaceous, brittle, opaque, closely investing the ivory-colored embryo, the elongately U-shaped pleurogram 5-8.3 x 2-4.4 mm.

Distribution and Ecology - A stately tree, native in and at margins of seasonally dry, deciduous and semideciduous as well as moister evergreen woodland and savanna (llano), below 1450 and mostly below 450 m, in the Orinoco Valley and on the Caribbean slope in Venezuela, in N Colombia, and in Central America northwestward perhaps to El Salvador, but extensively cultivated both within and outside its presumed natural range, this consequently no longer demonstrable; planted for shade and ornament on streets, in parks, and on roadsides throughout much of lowland continental Latin America and West Indies, locally used (at least in the past) as coffee-shade, and often preserved in pastures for cattle-shade and for the nutritious pods, thence locally naturalized; planted in Hawaii and locally in Old World Tropics. — Map 34. — Fl. most abundantly toward the end of the dry season, but sporadically through the year.

Local Names and Uses - Campano, saman (zaman), (Venezuela, Colombia); rain tree, whence árbol de lluvia (Spanish) and cognate chorona (Portuguese); carreto, cenicero, dormilón, zarza (Central America), carabelí, coují, lara, urero (Venezuela); French tamarind (Guyana); algarrobo (Cuba); guango (Jamatea); guannegoule (Haiti); coco tamarind, cow tamarind (Grenada).

Discussion

Once disentangled from S. tubulosa, from which it is infallibly distinguished at anthesis by position of the petiolar nectary and by form of the floral bracts, S. saman is sharply defined and in most features a stable species. The fruit varies in length and girth, but scarcely in other respects. The leaves are sensitive to light, folding at dusk and at the approach of storms, whence the vernacular name rain tree.

Common Names

campano, saman (zaman), rain tree, árbol de lluvia , chorona, carreto, cenicero, dormilón, zarza, carabelí, coují, lara, urero, French tamarind, algarrobo, guango, guannegoule, coco tamarind, cow tamarind

Distribution

Venezuela South America| Colombia South America| Panama Central America| Costa Rica South America| Nicaragua Central America| El Salvador Central America| Guatemala Central America| Cuba South America| Jamaica South America| Puerto Rico South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Virgin Islands South America| Saint Kitts and Nevis South America| Montserrat South America| Guadeloupe South America| Dominica South America| Martinique South America| Saint Lucia South America| Grenada South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America|