Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir.
-
Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
-
Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. 1991. Sensitivae Censitae. A description of the genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 65: 1-835.
-
Family
Mimosaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Type
69. Mimosa tenuiflora (Willdenow) Poiret, Encycl. Suppl. 1: 82. 1810, based on Acacia tenuiflora Willdenow, Sp. pl. 4: 1088. 1806.— "Habitat ad Caracas, Bredemeyer"—Holotypus, Bredemeyer 20 in B-WILLD 19189, seen in microform!—Non M. tenuiflora Bentham, 1
-
Synonyms
Acacia tenuiflora Willd., Acacia hostilis Mart., Mimosa hostilis (Mart.) Benth., Mimosa apodocarpa var. hostilis (Mart.) Hassl., Mimosa cabrera H.Karst., Mimosa nigra Huber, Mimosa limana Rizzini, Mimosa maracayuensis Chodat & Hassl.
-
Description
Species Description - Often vulnerantly prickly, microphyllidious arborescent shrubs and trees commonly 2-5 m with stiff knotty fuscous, livid or blackish branches erratically armed with stout subhorizontal castaneous or livid aculei 2-10 mm arising from a broad swollen pediment, the sometimes unarmed homotinous branchlets and foliage puberulent and ± resinous or viscid with minute soft hairs 0.1-0.3 mm and mostly sessile or semiimmersed, but on some stems partly short-stipitate glands ±0.05-0.1 mm diam., the plane firm lfts subconcolorous, dull olivaceous often brunescent when dry, facially either glabrous or finely puberulent, dorsally sprinkled with semiimmersed glands, often minutely ciliolate, the fl-spikes from axils of fully expanded or already fallen lvs, the inflorescence in consequence either immersed in foliage or on defoliate annotinous branchlets. Stipules deltate, triangular or triangular-acuminate (0.5-) 1-2.5 mm, deciduous. Leaf-stalks (2-)2.5-6.5(-9.5) cm, the petiole including livid pulvinus 7-14 mm, at middle 0.5-0.9 mm diam., the longer interpinnal segments (3-)4-9(-l 1) mm, the ventral groove interrupted between pinnae by a spicule 0.3-1 mm; pinnae in Brazil 4-7-. n.-ward to 11-jug., decrescent proximally, the rachis of longer ones (2-)2.5-5 (-5.5) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 1-2.2 (-2.5) mm; lfts of longer pinnae (15-) 17-33 (-40)-jug., decrescent only near ends of rachis, in outline linear-oblong obtuse or sometimes minutely apiculate, the longer ones (3.5-)4-8 x 1-1.6 mm, 2.5-5 times as long as wide, faintly 1 (-2)- nerved dorsally, the upper face veinless. Spikes solitary or sometimes geminate, subsessile, in young bud appearing as dense cylindric aments ±5-10 x 2-3 mm, the axis becoming 4-10 cm, loosely spicate; bracts cuneate-spatulate 0.6-1 mm, at dilated apex hooded and dorsally puberulent; fl-buds oblong-obovoid, minutely glandular-papillate distally; flowers 4-merous 8-androus, some often staminate; calyx turbinate-campanulate 0.75-1 mm, 4-angulate by prominent ribs leading to the very short, cucullately incurved, dorsally puberulent lobes; corolla turbinate 2.1-3.1 mm, whitish or greenish-white, the ovate, apically callous and incurved lobes 0.7-1.6 mm; filaments white, free, the longer ones exserted 3-4 mm; ovary gray-pilosulous laterally and glandular-verruculose overall. Pods narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic in profile, when well fertilized 25-50 x 6-8.5 mm, 4-6-seeded, the body cuneately contracted at base into a slender stipe 2-4 mm, the shallowly undulate replum 0.3-0.5 mm wide, the thin green valves becoming stramineous or brownish, bullately elevated over each seed, viscid with both sessile and short-stipitate glands, when ripe separating from replum and breaking up into articles ± 6-8 mm long; seeds in broad profile obovate-subcordate ±4-4.5 x 3.3 mm, the testa dull brown.
Distribution and Ecology - An element of brush-woodland communities subject to periodic or seasonal drought, in Brazil mostly in caatinga but entering cerrado and occasional on sandstone outcrops, in places forming weedy thickets in pastures and along highways, in n. South America in semideciduous forest and chaparral, mostly below 500 m but in Bahia attaining 750(-900) m, discontinuously dispersed in tropical North and South America: n.-e. Brazil in lat. 4-15°S, locally abundant from Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte to s.-e. Piauí and interior Bahia, there reaching the Contas valley e. of the central highlands and in the S. Francisco basin extending to Espigão Mestre and the frontier of Minas Gerais, perhaps disjunct (pending confirmation) in far e. S. Paulo (Campos da Bocaina, leg. Glaziou, P!), interior Venezuela (Zulia, Cojedes, Guárico, Lara, Aragua) and the Guajira Peninsula in n.-e. Colombia; arid valleys of the Pacific slope in El Salvador and Honduras; Pacific lowlands of Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. -Fl. in Brazil irregularly throughout the year, in Venezuela mostly X-II(-V).
-
Discussion
A syndrome of viscid foliage, strongly 4-ribbed calyx with incurved lobes, and a stipitate thin-walled pod charged with mixed sessile and stipitate glands, the valves bullately distended over the seeds, neatly defines this widespread species. The Brazilian populations, which were ascribed by Bentham to an endemic species, M. hostilis, differ only very slightly from those of Venezuela by leaves on the average a little shorter and composed of fewer (mostly 4-7, not 6-11) pairs of pinnae; but some individual plants from these widely disjunct areas are nevertheless identical in foliage. Stipitate glands are perhaps more frequent north than south of the Equator, but are imperfectly correlated with dispersal.
In recent years tepescohuite has received sensational publicity as a miracle drug in the treatment of bums. It is said to be harvested in Chiapas in great quantities.
- Carbonal, cabrera, cují cabrera (Venezuela-Colombia); jurema, j. preta (Brazil); tepescohuite (Mexico). Map 5.
-
Distribution
Mexico North America| Brazil South America| Piauí Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America| Rio Grande do Norte Brazil South America| Ceará Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Venezuela South America| Zulia Venezuela South America| Cojedes Venezuela South America| Guárico Venezuela South America| Lara Venezuela South America| Aragua Venezuela South America| Colombia South America| El Salvador Central America| Honduras Central America|