Mimosa elliptica Benth.

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Barneby, Rupert C. 1991. Sensitivae Censitae. A description of the genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 65: 1-835.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Mimosa elliptica Benth.

  • Type

    270. Mimosa elliptica Bentham, J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 400. 1842.—"Rio Janeiro, Lhotsky, Burchell, Pohl, Sello, Gardner. Lectotypus, Gardner 254, collected XI. 1836 (fl, fr), K! = NY Neg. 11663; isotypus, BM!; syntypi: Pohl 1373, K! W!, 1374, K! = NY Neg. 190

  • Synonyms

    Mimosa asperata var. elliptica (Benth.) Hassl., Mimosa cinerea Benth., Mimosa asperata var. cinerea (Vell.) Hassl., Mimosa velloziana Mart., Mimosa vellosiella Herter

  • Description

    Species Description - Diffuse, decumbent or assurgent shrubs attaining 2 m but mostly less, essentially like M. pigra except in glabrate flowers, non-paleaceous calyx, further exserted filaments, and relatively few-seeded strigose pods, the stems, lf-stks and peduncles either thinly strigose with forwardly sub-appressed setae to 1-2.5 mm or more loosely hispid with widely ascending setae up to 3-4.5 mm, the stems and commonly some interpinnal segments of lf-stks armed with broad-based straight aculei. Stipules as in M. pigra. Leaf-stalks 4-11 cm, the petiole with pulvinus 3-6(-7) mm, the interpinnal segments 8-20 mm, the spicule between pinna-pairs 2-13 mm; pinnae (4-)5-9- jug., the axis of longer ones 2-4.5 cm; lfts of longer pinnae (21-)22-40-jug., facially glabrous or dorsally puberulent, remotely setose-ciliolate. Capitula oblong-ellipsoid or subglobose, without filaments 6.5-12 x 5.5-7 mm; flowers with campanulate calyces 0.5-0.8 mm, glabrous externally, the rim minutely fimbriolate but not setose- paleaceous; corolla 2.2-3.1 mm, the lobes glabrous or minutely obscurely scaberulous externally; four longer filaments exserted 5-8 mm. Pods 40-55 x 9-10 mm, 8-12-seeded, the valves thinly strigose with slender, forwardly appressed setae to 0.8-1.5 mm, not villosulous, the indehiscent articles 3—4.5 mm long, at least twice as wide, sealed at each end by septum 0.1-0.2 mm wide.

    Distribution and Ecology - In habitats indifferently recorded, but favoring sandy soils, sometimes in restinga, scattered along the coast and coastal plain of s.-e. Brazil from Caravelas in s. Bahia s.-w. through Rio de Janeiro (with Guanabara) to e. S. Paulo (S. Sebastião).—Fl. principally XI-II, sporadically in other months.—Cult, in Tanganyika (Brenan, 1959: 42).

  • Discussion

    My concept of M. elliptica embraces all genuine habbasias which have glabrous or almost glabrous flowers together with simply campanulate, non-paleaceous calyx and long-exserted filaments, whether the capitula are ellipsoid, as stipulated by Bentham, or globose. Variation in length of the receptacle is commonplace both in this species and in M. pellita and is independent of variation in stature, pubescence, or other characters. As shown in the synonymy I include here, with considerable confidence, M. cinerea Vellozo. It is reasonable to suppose that the crude drawing in Flora Fluminensis, which (excluding the extraneous polyandrous flower) constitutes the type of M. cinerea, was based on a plant found near Rio de Janeiro, and does not represent the kindred species of the lower Paraguay valley to which it has been referred in modem times. The misconception that there is a M. vellosiella (M. cinerea Veil., non Linn.) common to tropical southeastern Brazil and northeastern extratropical Argentina arose in 1842 when Bentham (J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 401) misidentified as M. cinerea Tweedie’s collections from Entre Ríos and La Plata of the species herein recognized as the original Linnaean M. pigra.

    Like its common relative M. pellita, M. elliptica varies much in pubescence and in development of cauline and petiolar prickles. Pohl 1374 (K, NY) has relatively long loose setae on stems and leaf-stalks, and all are armed with subhorizontal broad-based aculei. More often the pubescence is appressed, strigose rather than hispid, and aculei appear and disappear erratically, sometimes at different levels of one stem. It is material of the latter type that Bentham associated with Argentine M. pigra, even though in some cases (e.g., several specimens in hb. Martius, BR) the capitula are much longer than wide and the flowers glabrous.

  • Distribution

    Brazil South America| Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America| São Paulo Brazil South America| Bahia Brazil South America|