Calliandra brevipes Benth.

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • 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.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Calliandra brevipes Benth.

  • Type

    "Brasilia: Pohl." — Holotypus, Pohl 1455, K (2 sheets, one ex hb. Hook. = IPA Neg. 1472 = K Neg. 12040 = NY Neg. 1960, the second ex hb. Benth. = K Neg. 12041)!. — Feuilleea brevipes O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 187. 1891. Fig. 9

  • Synonyms

    Calliandra selloi (Spreng.) J.F.Macbr., Calliandra yucunensis N.F.Mattos, Calliandra brevipes Benth.

  • Description

    Species Description - Freely, stiffly branched microphyllidious shrubs ±1.5-2 m, with fuscous annotinous and older (defoliate) stems, the young branchlets, lf-stks and peduncles minutely, sometimes densely brown-puberulent, the crowded bicolored lfts glabrous facially, sometimes minutely ciliolate, lustrously dark green above, paler dull beneath, the dense capitula solitary, pedunculate in lf-axils of annotinous long-shoots or (later) of axillary foliate short-shoots; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules triangular-lanceolate or deltate 0.6-2 mm, dorsally glabrous, 1-7-nerved, becoming dry persistent. Lf-formula i/(20-)23-45; lf-stks slender (1-) 1.54.5(-5) x 0.3-0.45 mm, the appendage ovate- triangular 0.4-1 mm; rachis of longer pinnae (12-) 15—35(—38) mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.3-1 (-1.2) mm; lft-pulvinules 0.1-0.2 mm, the blade sessile against rachis; lfts decrescent at each end of rachis, otherwise subequilong, in outline linear or linear-oblong from obliquely subtruncate base, straight or gently incurved, obtuse or subapiculate, the larger ones 3.5-5.5(-6.5) x 0.4—1.4(-1.6) mm, (3.2-)4—6 times as long as wide; midrib subcentric, commonly (in superficial view) unbranched, other venulation immersed or only faintly perceptible. Peduncles (4-)5-14(-22) mm, 1-bracteate beyond middle; capitula (technically umbelliform, but often obscurely so) 7-12-fld, the claviform or subglobose receptacle 1-2 mm; bracts ovate-triangular 0.3-0.9 mm, incurved, persistent; fls of each capitulum ordinarily heteromorphic, the peripheral ones shortly pedicellate, the terminal one sessile, broader but no longer than the rest and its androecium not modified; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel 0.1-0.7 mm; perianth glabrous or very thinly minutely puberulent, the pallid calyx ±15-striate, the pink-reddish corolla evenulose or almost so; calyx campanulate or turbinate-campanulate 0.9-1.8 x 1-1.6 mm, the broad subincurved teeth 0.2-0.5 mm; corolla 4—6.6 mm, the ovate lobes 1.4—2.3 mm; androecium 18-25-merous, (22-)25-32 mm, the stemonozone 0.35-0.6 mm, the tube 2.2-4 mm, the tassel whitish proximally, pink- or crimson-tipped (exceptionally all white); ovary glabrous; style of peripheral fls linear truncate, that of terminal fl(s) dilate at apex to 0.22-0.3 mm. Pods in profile 4.5-6 x 0.7-0.8 cm, the coarsely framed valves stiffly coriaceous, glabrous, weakly cross- venulose; seeds unknown.

    Distribution and Ecology - Native on rocky stream banks and at margin of gallery woodland, 90-1200 m, locally common in e. Brazil s.-ward from centr. Minas Gerais to Uruguay, w. into n.-e. Argentina (Misiones) and adj. Paraguay; one record from Salvador, Bahia; cultivated in its native range and far afield. — Map 27. — Fl. in Brazil mostly XII-I, IV-VII, but in cultivation sporadically through the year.

  • Discussion

    Calliandra brevipes, commonly passing under the misnomer C. selloi, might stand as the prototype of the conjugately pinnate, plurifoliolate species of sect. Androcallis. It was cultivated at Kew in 1850 (K, NY), on Martinique in 1857 (Belanger 297, 1046, both G), at Hortus Bogoriensis in 1903 (NY) and is currently planted in gardens of Dominican Republic. Its many small, almost veinless leaflets and its star- bursts of bicolored filaments arising from parallel ranks of brachyblasts are unquestionably ornamental.

    For purposes of nomenclature I have ignored Acacia selloi Sprengel, which Macbride interpreted as the basionym of Calliandra selloi. No typus of A. selloi is known to survive, and the leaflet number ascribed to the species is much lower than seen in any collection of C. brevipes. The typus of C. yucunensis has not been seen, but there is nothing in the protologue incompatible with other examples of C. brevipes from Rio Grande do Sul.

  • Common Names

    Munduruva, Sarandi, Esponginha

  • Distribution

    Minas Gerais Brazil South America| Misiones Argentina South America| Bahia Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America| Santa Catarina Brazil South America| Rio Grande do Sul Brazil South America|