Calliandra falcata 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 falcata Benth.

Type

"Raised in Mr. Knight’s nursery from Mexican seeds." — No typus found at K in 1994, but collections by Fendler, Funk, and Birschell from Caracas (all K!) cited as C. falcata by Bentham, 1875: 541, are authentic. — Feuilleea falcata O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen.

Synonyms

Calliandra fulgens Hook.f., Calliandra serjanioides Urb., Calliandra amblyphylla Harms, Calliandra falcata Benth., Anneslia fulgens (Hook.f.) Britton & Rose, Calliandra guildingii Benth.

Description

Species Description - Macrophyll, drought-resistent trees attaining (2-) 3-6(-8) m with one or several trunks and stiff terete pallescent, densely foliate long-shoots, the young stems and lf-axes variably puberulent, subglabrous, or pilosulous with fine soft erect-incurved hairs to 0.2-0.5 mm, the plane, stiffly papery, scarcely bicolored lfts glabrous or glabrous ciliolate to pilosulous along principal nerves or pilosulous overall, the dense capitula arising, singly or fasciculate by 2-3, from a crowded series of efoliate or only depauperately foliate nodes either terminating or lateral to the main leafy axis of the season, forming a pseudoraceme shortly exserted from coeval foliage; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules deltate or lanceolate 2-10 x 1.5-2.8 mm, when young (5—)7—11-nerved dorsally, becoming thick and smooth, either glabrous or pilosulous dorsally, persistent or tardily deciduous. Lf-formula i/2-3 (4), some lvs of any plant at least 9- foliolate and most larger lvs 12- or 16-foliolate, the proximal lfts much smaller than the distal ones, and often not exactly opposite; lf-stks (3-)4—25(-28) mm, at middle 0.8-1.3(-2) mm diam, shallowly grooved ventrally; rachis of longer pinnae 1.7-4.5(-5) cm, the longest (furthest) interfoliolar segment (7-)8-24 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.4-2 x 0.6—1.4 mm, wrinkled; lfts heteromorphic, the small lowest pair rhombic-ovate, the distal pair falcately elliptic or semi-ovate from shallowly semicordate base, shortly or obscurely acuminate and at very apex obtuse or obtuse mucronulate, the larger ones (2.5-)3-9(-10.5) x 1.2-3.6(-4) cm, 2-2.6(-2.7) times as long as wide; venation palmate-pinnate, the primary nerves 3(-4), the midrib gently incurved or almost straight, displaced to divide blade 1:2-2.5, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending well beyond midblade, the outer one(s) much shorter, all these together with tertiary and reticular venules sharply prominulous on both faces. Peduncles 12-43 x 0.9-1.5 mm, bracteate near or below middle; capitula 10—26-fld, the receptacle 1.5-5 x 24.5 mm, the fls (? always) heteromorphic, one or more central ones with pallid dilated, well-exserted staminal tube; bracts ovate 0.4—0.9 mm, persistent; perianth either 4- or 5-merous, minutely stigulose-pilosulous except for sometimes glabrescent calyx, weakly or imperceptibly nerved; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel (sometimes not externally differentiated) 0.1-0.5 x 0.4—0.9 mm; calyx campanulate 1.3-2.8 x 1.2-2.2 mm, the depressed obtuse teeth 0.2-0.4 mm; corolla 7-11 mm, the deltate-ovate obtuse lobes (1.3-)2.1-4.2 mm; androecium (14-)16-26-merous, 3245 mm, the tube (5.7-)6-10 mm, the stemonozone 0.8-1.2 mm, the tassel dark red or crimson; intrastaminal nectary 0; ovary (often rudimentary or lacking) pilosulous; CENTRAL FL(S): seldom well observed, the perianth broader but little longer than that of peripheral fls, the whitish androecial tube exserted 5-7 mm from corolla, at orifice 34 mm diam. Pods stiffly ascending, in broad view (6-)7-10 x 1.3-1.8 cm, ±5-6- seeded, the dark brown, sharply obliquely venulose valves thinly brown- or grayish-strigulose; seeds in broad view elliptic ±9.5 x 5-7 mm, the testa brown, darker-speckled, smooth, the pleurogram deeply U-shaped.

Distribution and Ecology - In drought-deciduous woodland, thickets, and espinares, along the Caribbean coast at 70-650 m but ascending to 1000-1500 m in the interior, locally plentiful in n. Venezuela, from Distrito Federal and Aragua w. to Carabobo, Yaracuy, and Falcón; cultivated in West Indies and elsewhere. — Map 30. — Fl. all months from VIII to III, also in V, most copiously following rains.

Discussion

The presumed relationship of C. falcata to C. guildingii is based on resemblance in many characters; differences in stipules, stressed in Key III, are differences in size rather than kind. The different habitats are surely significant. The inflorescence architecture of C. guildingii is that expected in sect. Androcallis, but that of C. falcata is at least sometimes that established in sect. Calliandra, a terminal efoliate pseudoraceme, here interpreted as independently derived by suppression or partial suppression of many distal primary leaves. The loss of distal leaves is perhaps related to the ecology of the species.

The nomenclature of C. falcata is not well documented. No type of the species was found at Kew in 1994/6, but its identity is vouched for by material from near Caracas identified by Bentham and agreeing with the original description. Calliandra falcata was cultivated on Martinique in the mid-nineteenth century and seems to have been dispersed from the Botanical Garden there to similar institutions in the Old World. Kew possesses authentic material of C. fulgens, which in context of C. falcata is somewhat unusual in its narrow leaflets, but which cannot be accommodated elsewhere in the genus as presently known. Its reputed origin in Mexico is no doubt a mistake. It has been equated (in herb. K) with the related C. haematocephala, but the leaflets are fewer than in any wild Bolivian material of that species and the flower lacks the characteristic reflexed fringe of sterile filaments in the mouth of the filament tube which is its signature. No type of either C. serjanioides, proceeding from Martinique in 1900, nor of C. amblyphylla Harms, dating to about 1921 in equatorial Africa, survived the disaster at Berlin, and as no duplicate material of either has been located, interpretation depends entirely on the protologues. Typical C. falcata was at the Trinidad Botanical Garden at this time, and contemporaneously at Buitenzorg.

Common Names

clavellina, clavellino amarillo, cimbra-potro

Distribution

Distrito Federal Venezuela South America| Aragua Venezuela South America| Carabobo Venezuela South America| Yaracuy Venezuela South America| Falcón Venezuela South America| West Indies|