Havardia pallens (Benth.) Britton & Rose
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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
"[Mexico. Hidalgo:] Zimapan, Coulter." — Holotypus, n.v.; isotypus, TCD, seen in photo at NY!
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Synonyms
Calliandra pallens Benth., Pithecellobium pallens (Benth.) Standl., , , Zygia brevifolia (Benth.) Sudw., Havardia brevifolia (Benth.) Small, , Havardia nelsonii Britton & Rose
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Description
Species Description - Microphyllidious trees or bushy treelets 2-9(-12) m, erratically armed at nodes with spinulose or ligneous stipules (on new branchlets often 1 mm or less and strictly ascending, on older branches woody, either ascending or spreading, to 15 mm), the young branchlets and lf- and inflorescence-axes either loosely strigulose or pilosulous with incumbent or spreading, extremely fine whitish hairs to 0.1-0.2 (-0.25) mm, the pallidly matte-olivaceous lvs moderately bicolored, the lfts a little paler beneath than above, either glabrous, or glabrous ciliolate, or finely puberulent on lower or on both faces and often with a tuft of hairs in anterior basal angle of midrib dorsally, the rather small capitula of whitish fls fasciculate by 2-5(-7), the fascicles axillary either to coevally expanded or to hysteranthous lvs along homotinous branchlets, together forming at first efoliate but later leafy pseudoracemes, the axis of most determinate, the branching therefore sympodial, no lateral branchlets reduced to brachybasts. Stipules 0.5-15 mm, when shorter than 2 mm erect, often with stiff burnished tip, when longer spreading widely or subhorizontal and to 3 mm wide near laterally compressed base, the longer ones lignescent and rigid, all straight or almost so, commonly puberulent like the stems but glabrescent distally, the stouter ones long-persistent. Lf-formula (ii—)iii—vi(—vii)/( 10-) 12-21; lf-stks of larger lvs (2.5-)3-7.5(-8.5) cm, the petiole (13—) 15— 32 mm, at middle 0.5-0.7(-0.85) mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments 5-13 mm; petiolar nectary sessile, shallowly cupular thick-rimmed, round or elliptic, 0.5-1.4(-l .9) mm diam, in profile 0.15-0.4 mm tall, variably situated but most commonly below midpetiole, rarely at very base, sometimes a little above midpetiole, sometimes rudimentary, a second similar nectary near first pinna-pair, often very small ones at tip of pinna-rachises, or between 2-5 furthest pairs of lfts; pinnae little graduated, the rachis of penultimate pair 2-5.5(-8) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 1.2-3.3(-4) mm; lft-pulvinules 0.3-0.7 x 0.2-0.4 mm, not wrinkled; lfts opposite, subequilong except at very ends of rachis, the first pair either very small or commonly represented by a linear paraphyllidium, the blades narrow-oblong or linear from semicordate-auriculate base, very shortly or obscurely depressed-deltate-acuminate, those near midrachis (5—)5.5—10.5(—12) x (1.6-)1.8-3.3(-3.5) mm, (2.5-)2.7—4.1(-4.4) times as long as wide; venation pinnate, the slightly displaced, straight or distally porrect midrib giving rise on each side to 3-5(-6) secondary nerves weakly brochidodrome well within the plane margin, the whole venation immersed on upper face, only the midrib prominulous beneath. Peduncles 7-24(-30) mm; capitula commonly hemispherical but sometimes a little elongate, (8-) 14-21 -fld, the receptacle 2-5(-8) mm; bracts ovate or oblanceolate 0.6-1.2 mm, persistent into anthesis, then dry deciduous; fls sessile, homomorphic, the perianth 5(randomly 6)-merous, the calyx densely silvery-puberulent or -pilosulous externally, the greenish white corolla glabrous up to the lobes, these puberulent overall or commonly only toward apex; calyx shallowly campanulate or hemispherical 1-1.7 (-1.9) x 1-1.5 mm, the ovate or deltate teeth 0.2-0.5 mm; corolla narrowly vase-shaped (3.5-)4-5.3(-6.3) mm, the spreading-recurved lobes (1—) 1.2—2 x 0.6-1.1mm; androecium (28-)30-52-merous, (9-)10.5-14.5mm, the stemonozone 0.4-0.6 mm, the tube (1.5—) 1.7—2.7(—3.6) mm, thickened internally at base into callosities 0.2-0.4 mm; ovary either glabrous or densely minutely puberulent, cuneately contracted at each end, at base into a glabrous stipe 0.9-1.8 mm, the body compressed but plump, not sulcate laterally; style a little exserted from androecium, the stigma poriform. Pods solitary or exceptionally 2 per capitulum, both stipitate and pseudostipitate, the stipe and pseudostipe together 6-16 mm, the body broad-linear straight, abruptly contracted into an erect cusp 2-7 mm, when well fertilized 7-12 x 1.2-1.8(-2) cm, 8-13-seeded, the stiffly papery, when ripe brown, glabrate, closely coarsely cross-venulose valves framed by bluntly 3-carinate (not winged), straight or scarcely undulate sutures 1.2-1.8 mm wide, low-convex (on alternate faces of pod) over each seed, pallid smooth (but not satiny) within, the cavity continuous; seeds transverse at middle of pod on compressed, distally sigmoid funicle, compressed-lentiform, in broad view oblong-elliptic or nearly round 5.3-7 x 4—6 mm, the smooth or finely pitted, scarcely lustrous, dark brown or fuscous testa ±0.1-0.15 mm thick, closely investing the pallid embryo, the pleurogram not quite complete.
Distribution and Ecology - In tropical deciduous woodland and thorn-scrub mostly below 450 but attaining 1100-1200 m in desert mountains of the Chihuahua Desert and 1170 m in Chiapas, widespread and common on the coastal plain and foothills of the Gulf of Mexico from S Texas to N Veracruz, inland to NE Chihuahua, E Coahuila, E-centr. Durango and E Nuevo León, apparently disjunct in Pacific lowland Oaxaca, and at the head of the Río Grande basin near 16°N, 92°W in Chiapas (mun. La Trinitaria), Mexico. — Map 46. — Fl. V-VIII.
Local Names and Uses - guajillo (huajillo, -a), tenaza.
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Common Names
guajillo (huajillo, -a), tenaza
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Distribution
Chihuahua Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Coahuila Mexico North America| Nuevo León Mexico North America| Tamaulipas Mexico North America| San Luis Potosí Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Querétaro Mexico North America| Hidalgo Mexico North America| Durango Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Texas United States of America North America|