Lysiloma sabicu Benth.

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

Lysiloma sabicu Benth.

Synonyms

Lysiloma paucifoliola (DC.) Hitchc. ex Northr., , , Lysiloma formosa (A.Rich.) Hitchc.

Description

Species Description - Semideciduous unarmed arborescent shrubs, in undisturbed woodland attaining 12 m but potentially flowering when 1 m tall, the annotinous branchlets purplish-brown pallid-lenticellate, prominently buttressed at defoliate nodes, glabrous, the lvs and fls also glabrous throughout except for distally puberulent corolla-lobes and for occasional lfts minutely barbellate dorsally in anterior basal angle of midrib, the plane, thin-textured lfts more or less bicolored, paler beneath, the hemispherical capitula of whitish fls arising singly or geminate from the earliest nodes of short-shoots lateral to indeterminate barren long-shoots, subtended by dilated, green but submembranous, caducous stipules and sometimes also a developed lf; resting buds plumply ovoid or subglobose l-2.5(-3) mm, the perules firm, lustrous brown, not striate externally. Stipules obovate-cuneate obtuse or broadly oblanceolate subacute 7-16 x 4—10 mm, flabellately several-nerved from base. Lf-formula ii- iv/(3-)4-6(-7); lf-stks 3-12 cm, the slender petiole scarcely longer than the longest interpinnal segment, this (1.2-)1.5-3.3 cm; a sessile shallow-cupular or sunken nectary either near, or below, or well above midpetiole 0.6-1.3 mm diam, rarely a minute one at apex of lf-stk; pinnae subequilong or shorter proximally, the rachis of longer ones 3.5-7 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (6—)8—18(-20) mm; lft- pulvinules subterete 1-2.2 mm; lfts moderately accrescent upward, obovate or broadly oblong-elliptic obtuse, the larger ones (1.2—)1.4—2.7(—4.7) x 0.8-1.7 (-3) cm, 1.3-1.9(-2.4) times as long as wide; venation pinnate, the subcentric, straight or faintly incurved midrib giving rise on each side to (4-)5-8(-9) secondary venules brochidodrome well within the margin, a weak tertiary venulation at times elevated on one or both faces. Peduncles 3-5 cm, ebracteolate; capitula 22-45-fld, the receptacle including short pedestal 1.5-3.5 mm; bracts obsolete; fls subhomomorphic in perianth but the androecial tube of 1-4 distal ones longer and more dilated upward; pedicel of lowest fls 0.4-1.4 mm, of distal fls progressively shorter or 0; calyx narrowly campanulate, bluntly angulate, 2.5-3.6(-4) x 1.4-1.9 mm, the often unequal teeth 0.2-0.9 mm; corolla 3.8-5 mm, the often unequal lobes 1-1.6 mm; androecia 14—22-merous, 10.5-16.5 mm, the tube in peripheral fls 2.2-4.5, in terminal fls 4.3-7 mm, but these occasionally abortive; ovary glabrous, abruptly contracted into the style; stigma scarcely dilated, ±0.12-0.15 mm diam. Pods 1-5 per capitulum, geotropic, the stipe (1.6-)1.8-3.6 cm, the piano-compressed body in profile oblong, elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate (7-)8-14 (-15.5) x (1.9-)2.2-4 cm, often attenuate toward base and there twisted through 180°, flat thereafter and framed by slender, dorsally plane, narrowly prominulous sutures, the thin-textured valves consisting of livid-nigrescent glabrous exocarp breaking up at maturity by transverse and vertical cracks into readily deciduous tesserae and thereby exposing the smooth papery stramineous endocarp, this not spontaneously separating from the sutural ribs, the 2 valves closely appressed toward the margin and between successive seeds, low-bullate over them; dehiscence 0, the fruit sometimes retained unopened on the tree into anthesis of second year; funicles filiform, straight; seeds transverse, compressed-ellipsoid, in broad view 5.8-8.5 x 3.6-4.2 mm, the testa fuscous-castaneous, microscopically roughened, the pleurogram at middle of seed-face elliptic complete x 1.3-2.2 mm.

Distribution and Ecology - In coppice on coral-limestone near sea level and in Hispaniola inland and up to 600 m in xeromorphic woodland, local but gregarious: NW Bahamas, (Grand Bahama, Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera, Cat and the Exumas); Cuba (widespread from W Pinar del Río and Isla de la Juventud to E Oriente); Hispaniola (SE Haiti and SW Dominican Republic); and Puerto Rico (Cambalache Forest); cultivated and perhaps locally naturalized in S Penisular Florida; reported (Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 264. 1920; Standley 1922: 390) from Yucatán (xiaxek), but no Mexican specimens seen. — Map 64. — Fl. II-V, sporadically later.

Local Names and Uses - Horseflesh (Bahamas); jigüe,jiqui, sabicú (Cuba); caracolí (Dominican Republic, where also recorded for Pithecellobium unguis-cati).

Common Names

Horseflesh, jigüe, jiqui, sabicu, caracolí

Distribution

Grand Bahama Bahamas South America| Andros Island Bahamas South America| New Providence Bahamas South America| Eleuthera Bahamas South America| Cat Island Bahamas South America| Exuma Bahamas South America| Piñar del Río Cuba South America| Isla de la Juventud Cuba South America| Oriente Cuba South America| Cuba South America| Puerto Rico South America| Dominican Republic South America| Haiti South America|