Abarema oppositifolia (Urb.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"Hab. in Haiti prope Port-au-Prince in montibus Furcy, m. April, flor.: Picarda n. 1024." — Holotypus, †B; neotypus, Leonard 4327, annotated by Urban, US 1076785!; isotypi, US 1411959, 1411960!
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Synonyms
Jupunba oppositifolia (Urb.) Britton & Rose, , Jupunba trinitensis Britton & Rose
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Description
Species Description - Amply densely microphyllidious trees 3-12 m with trunk attaining 6 dm dbh, the leaves and branchlets often appearing opposite but seldom exactly so and not at every node, the young growth, all lf-axes, and the inflorescence rusty-golden-puberulent with incurved hairs <0.25 mm, the lvs strongly bicolored, above dark green (brunnescent or nigrescent when dried), glabrous and lustrous, beneath pale, dull and minutely or sparsely strigulose and often in addition barbellate in anterior basal angle of midrib, the short umbelliform capitula solitary and long-pedunculate in the axil of coeval lvs, immersed in foliage, the dehisced fruits often persisting on annotinous defoliate branchlets. Stipules obsolete or perhaps sometimes very early caducous, no scar seen. Lf-formula iv—xiii/16—25(—30); lf-stks 4—13 cm, the petiole 6-20 mm, the longer interpinnal segments 5-10 mm; lf- nectaries capriciously variable, always sessile, the first of each lf situated immediately below proximal pinna-pair mostly 1-3 mm diam, either grossly verruciform small-pored, when as wide as or wider than the petiole, or low-convex, or immersed in petiolar tissue, random smaller nectaries between some distal pinna-pairs or lacking, yet smaller ones between many pairs of leaflets or only between few distal ones, or lacking; pinnae decrescent at each end of lf-stk, those near mid-lf 3.5-6 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 2-4.5 mm; lft-pulvinules subobsolete, in dorsal view not over 0.25 mm; lfts subequal except for some smaller proximal pairs and the slightly wider furthest pair, the blade oblong or oblong-elliptic from inequilateral semicordate base, very obtuse or obscurely emarginate at apex, those at midrachis 5-7.8 x 2.1-3.5 mm, (2-)2.1-2.8 times as long as wide; the midrib recurved immediately above base and thence straight or nearly so, subcentric, giving rise on each side to 3-4(-5) widely ascending or subhorizontal secondary venules weakly brochidodrome within the revolute margin, tertiary venulation 0 (rarely a weak posterior primary nerve from pulvinule). Peduncles 3-9 cm; capitula ±15—25-fld, the narrowly clavate or hemispherical receptacle ±3-5 mm; bracts oblanceolate <0.5 mm, very early caducous; fls homomorphic or very slightly longer distally, the pedicel of proximal ones 1-2 mm, that of distal ones progressively shorter or 0; perianth 5-merous, puberulent externally; calyx 3.4-4.2 x 2-2.5 mm, the low-deltate teeth 0.4-0.7 mm; corolla narrowly vase-shaped 6-7.2 mm, the ascending, lance-ovate lobes 2.4—2.9 x 1.2-1.5 mm; androecium 43-52-merous, 12-15 mm long, the stemonozone 1-1.2 mm, the tube 3.5-4.5 mm; ovary truncate glabrous; stigma not or scarcely dilated. Pods solitary or 2 per capitulum, sessile but backwardly attenuate below the first seed, in profile undulately broad-linear 6-11 x 0.6—1 (—1.2) cm, (6-)7-9(-10)- seeded, either falcately or spirally recurved through to 1½ circles, the ligneous valves at first piano-compressed becoming low-convex and only a trifle thickened over each seed, externally dull fuscous-brown and sometimes bluntly venulose, either glabrous or minutely remotely puberulent, the endocarp crimson in the seed-cavities and tan between them, the seed- locules 7—13(—15) mm long; dehiscence of Abarema; funicles narrow-ligulate, twisted at apex; seeds basipetal, plumply lentiform, in broad profile 4.3-6 x 3.4—5 mm, the smooth translucent testa at first colorless and transmitting the blue coloring of the embryo, later in part or wholly pearly-gray or pale yellowish tan, in cross-section 0.2-0.3 mm thick, closely investing the embryo, charged on each broad face with a finely engraved, continuous pleurogram 2.5-4 x 1.4-3 mm.
Distribution and Ecology - In thickets and woodland or mountain pine-forest, 800-1600 m, discontinuously dispersed from centr. Cuba E to centr. Hispaniola: in Cuba on Sa. de Trinidad and Loma de Banao in Las Villas, and on Sa. Maestra in S Oriente; in Haiti on Massif de la Selle in dept. Ouest and its prolongation into prov. Independencia and Barahona in Dominican Republic, thence NE into Cordillera Central of prov. Santiago and La Vega. — Map 30. — Fl. IX-XI, III—VI, perhaps irregularly throughout the year, the fruits long persistent.
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Discussion
Abarema oppositifolia is the most widely dispersed of the Antillian microphyll abaremas and offers a convenient standard by which the more local, perhaps derived species can be evaluated. The leaves tend to be crowded toward the tip of the branchlets but are fortuitously opposite in some specimens only. Jupunba trinitensis was supposed by Britton and Rose (1928: 24) to differ in slightly larger, thinner-textured, less lustrous leaflets, but these are ineffective criteria in the material that has accumulated since.
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Distribution
Las Villas Cuba West Indies| Oriente Cuba South America| Ouest Haiti South America| Independencia Dominican Republic South America| Barahona Dominican Republic South America| Santiago Dominican Republic South America| La Vega Dominican Republic South America|