Calliandra bijuga Rose
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. 1998. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: A generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part III. Calliandra. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-223.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"[MEXICO. Guerrero:] Bottom lands at Acapulco, Dr. Edward Palmer, November, 1894 (No. 138)." — Holotypus, US!; isotypus, K!; clastotypus, NY!. — Anneslia bijuga Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 61. 1928.
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Synonyms
Anneslia michelii Britton & Rose, Calliandra bijuga Rose
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Description
Species Description - Arborescent shrubs attaining 4—5 m with trunk ±2 dm diam, the annotinous and older branches stiffly divaricate, terete, gray or fuscous, the young branchlets and ventral face of lf-axes pilosulous with loosely ascending or subappressed, pallid hairs to 0.35-0.7 mm, the firmly chartaceous, usually glabrous, rarely dorsally pilosulous or ciliolate, lfts strongly bicolored, dark brown or dove-gray and sublustrous above, paler brown and dull beneath, the capitula arising singly from lower nodes of shortly extended brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules submembranous, lanceolate or lance-attenuate 2.5-6 x 0.7-1.3 mm, weakly or indistinctly 3-5-nerved, becoming papery fragile. Lf- formula (i—)ii/7—12; lf-stks of primary lvs 5-23 mm, the petiole ±5-14 mm, the one interpinnal segment (present in all or most lvs) 6-16 mm; pinnae equilong or the distal pair slightly longer, the rachis of longer ones 3.5-6.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 4-7.5 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.2-0.7 x 0.5-0.8 mm, transversely wrinkled; lfts little graduated (but terminal pair, no further described, sometimes longest), the blades lanceolate or lance-oblong from shallowly semicordate base, straight or incipiently falcate above middle, deltately acute or sometimes apiculate, those near mid-rachis 9-18 x 3—5.7 mm, 2.9-3.6 times as long as wide; venation palmate-pinnate, the midrib displaced to divide blade ±1:1.5, weakly ±7-12-branched on each side, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending almost to or less often beyond midblade, the (1—)2—3 outer posterior primary veins progressively much shorter, all these and random tertiary venules prominulous on both faces of blade. Peduncles 1.6-4.3 cm, commonly ebracteate (one bract seen); capitula densely 12—18-fld, the receptacle <2 mm diam, the fls apparently subhomomorphic, the subterminal fls sometimes stouter but no longer than the peripheral ones and their androecium (poorly observed) apparently not differentiated, the perianth (4—)5-merous, glabrous except for microciliolate orifice of calyx and sometimes for a few random hairs at tip of corolla- lobes; bracts subulate 0.4-1.2 mm, tardily deciduous; calyx campanulate (1-)1.3-2.6 x 0.7-2.4 mm, weakly 5-nerved, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.15- 0.3 mm; corolla 5.5-7 mm, seemingly ochroleucous reddish- tinged, the lobes 1.1-2 mm; androecium 14—18-mer- ous, the tube 6.5-7 mm, either shortly included or shortly exserted, the stemonozone 0.7-0.9 mm, the tassel either deep crimson-red throughout, or distally pink; ovary subsessile, glabrous at anthesis, the intrastaminal nectary ±0.35 mm tall. Pods erect, in broad profile 7-10.5 x (0.65-)0.8-1.2 cm, the sutural ribs in dorsal view ±2-3 mm wide, the stiffly coriaceous, weakly distantly transverse-venulose valves cinnamon- brown, like the sutures glabrous throughout; seeds (few seen) to 13 x 6.5 mm, the brown hard testa indistinctly mottled, pleurogrammic. Collectors have described the androecium as either uniformly crimson or white with rose-pink tassel.
Distribution and Ecology - Described from the Pacific coast of Guerrero (near Acapulco), where perhaps a waif or cultivated; known subsequently only from oak-pine forest, sometimes along streams, at 700-2000 m in mountainous s. tropical Mexico, within lat. 18°30'-20°N, 100°-105°W: w. Jalisco; s. Michoacan; Guerrero, s.-w. México. — Map 6.-Fl. XI-II, V, the whole cycle not established.
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Discussion
Calliandra bijuga closely resembles the allopatric C. rubescens and C. goldmanii, but differs from both in somewhat lower leaf-formula and dark crimson androecium, from C. rubescens further in larger leaflets and from C. goldmanii further in less condensed brachyblasts and few-nerved stipules.
The equation C. bijuga = C. michelii, proposed first by Micheli and lately endorsed by McVaugh, is here accepted without question.
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Distribution
Jalisco Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Guerrero Mexico North America|