Calliandra hirtiflora Benth.
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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
Typus infra sub var. hirtiflora indicatur.
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Description
Species Description - Amply microphyllidious shrubs 1-2 m with stout, simply virgate or distally few-branched, densely foliate stems, commonly glabrous except for barbellate ventral face of lf-axes but the young stems in addition sparsely pilose or barbate with erect, extremely fine, shining white hairs to ±1.4-1.8 mm, the peduncles and perianth of fls sometimes minutely granular, the foliage drying brown, the lfts darker and lustrous above, paler dull and faintly resin-spotted beneath, either glabrous overall or randomly ciliate, the stout peduncles arising singly or 2(-3) together from distal lf-axils or shortly pseudoracemose; phyllotaxy either distichous or incipiently spiral. Stipules herbaceous, ovate or lanceolate 5-11 x (1.8—)2—4.5(—5) mm, several-nerved, glabrous or rarely ciliate, deciduous. Lf-formula (iii—)iv—vii/(22—)24—38(—40); lf-stk of longer lvs 3.5-6.5(-10) cm, the petiole including nigrescent wrinkled pulvinus 10-22 cm, at middle 1.1-1.7 mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments 8-15 mm, the ventral groove bridged at insertion of pinnae; pinnae either scarcely or randomly graduated in length, the rachis of longer ones (4—)4.5—7.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments l-2.2(-3) mm; lft- pulvinules 0.25-0.5 x 0.5-0.7 mm; lfts subequilong or gradually decrescent toward end of rachis, the firm plane blades linear from obtusangulate or shortly obtusely auriculate base, deltately obtuse, the longer ones (6—)7—12 x 1.5-4 mm, 4.2-6 times as long as wide; midrib simple or almost so, 1-2 weak posterior primary nerves sometimes faintly raised, the tender young lfts becoming vertically wrinkled when dried. Peduncles 3.2-8.5 cm, usually ebracteate; capitula (4-)4-8-fld, the receptacle 1.5-4.5 mm diam; bracts resembling stipules in texture and venation, narrowly ovate or lanceolate 3-6 x 1-2 mm, caducous; fls homomorphic; pedicels 0.8-1.7 x 1.2-1.9 mm; perianth moderately thickened, ochroleucous, either a) proximally smooth and distally granular-papillate, or b) papillate and remotely strigulose overall, or c) smooth but randomly ciliate, or d) distally pilose, the calyx (4-)5-merous, the corolla mostly 4- but by fusion sometimes 3- or 2-merous, the calyx-teeth sometimes weakly 1-3-nerved but the rest externally nerveless; calyx 5.5-9.2 mm, the narrowly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, sometimes unequal teeth (3-)3.5-7 mm; corolla 6.5-11 (-12) mm, either as long as calyx or well exserted, the lobes separated to variable depth, sometimes to the rim of stemonozone; androecium 44-112-merous, (2-)2.4—4.1 cm, the stemonozone 1.7-3.5(-4) mm, the tube (5-)7-9 mm, the tassel white, rubescent in age; ovary at anthesis glabrous, pubescent after fertilization. Pods in profile 7-10 x 0.75-1 cm, the sutural ribs in dorsal view ±3 mm wide, the recessed valves transversely and subreticulately venulose, the whole ± densely granular or the margins egranular and thinly pilosulous; seeds light brown, ±6.5-7 x 4-5 mm, the pleurogram 4-4.5 x 2.2-2.5 mm.
Variation and relationships - Calliandra hirtiflora proves quite variable in detail, and a sharply defined image of it is not easily attained. A combination of herbaceous stipules about 5-11 x 2-4.5 mm, petioles about 1-2 cm long, pinnae mostly 4—7 pairs, and calyx-teeth longer than the tube separate it from presumably related taxa of Chapada Diamantina. The material falls into two categories that I first described as independent species but that now seem better assessed as varieties of one.