Calliandra houstoniana var. calothyrsus (Meisn.) Barneby

  • 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 houstoniana var. calothyrsus (Meisn.) Barneby

  • Type

    "In sylvis montosis prope flum. Mariepastonkreek, m. Maio 1846 legit Kegel n. 1465." — Holotypus, NY (hb. Meisner., at present on loan to MEXU); isotypus, GOET acc. Breteler, Acta bot. neerl. 38(1): 79, fig. 1. 1989. — Feuilleea calothyrsa [sic] O. Kuntze

  • Synonyms

    Calliandra confusa Sprague & L.Riley, Calliandra similis Sprague & L.Riley, Calliandra calothyrsus Meisn.

  • Description

    Variety Description - Lf-formula (vi-)ix-xviii/(30-)34-62; lf-stks of larger lvs 8-15 cm, their longer interpinnal segments 6-10(-12) mm; rachis of longer pinnae (4—)5-8.5 cm; longer lfts linear acute 4-9(-10) x 0.65-1.9 mm, either straight or gently incurved. Inflorescence-axes either glabrous, or puberulent, or pilose, but the peduncles at most thinly so; peduncles (3—)4—12(—15) mm; pedicels 2-4.5 mm; perianth commonly glabrous, rarely micropuberulent; calyx 1.6-2.3 x 2.23.2 mm, the teeth 0.25-0.6 mm; corolla (6-)6.5-9.5 (-11.5) mm, the lobes as long as tube or separating to rim of stemonozone; androecium 40-52-merous, usually crimson throughout, occasionally pallid proximally and pink distally. Pods in profile 8-11 (-12) x 1.1-1.6 cm, commonly glabrous or micropuberulent, less often strigulose or even pilose.

    Distribution and Ecology - In brush-woodland, along stony river banks, on roadsides, in wasteland, and in undisturbed open forest, (2-)50-1400(-1650) m, locally plentiful, s.-e. Mexico (Oaxaca, Chiapas) to Belize and n.-w. Panama, collected once in Veracruz (Jalapa, perhaps planted) and apparently disjunct locally in upland w. Jalisco and Colima; cultivated and weedy in interior Hispaniola, and widely planted in the Paleotropics; first described from specimens collected in 1846 by H. A. H. Kegel on the Saramacca River in Surinam, but not since encountered in S. America. — Map 42. — Fl. VI-III, perhaps in all months of the year.

  • Distribution

    Oaxaca Mexico North America| Chiapas Mexico North America| Veracruz Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| Colima Mexico North America| West Indies| Belize Central America| Panama Central America|