Chamaecrista chamaecristoides (Collad.) Greene var. chamaecristoides

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Irwin, Howard S. & Barneby, Rupert C. 1982. The American Cassiinae. A synoptical revision of Leguminosae tribe Cassieae subtrib Cassiinae in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35, part 2: 455-918.

  • Family

    Caesalpiniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Chamaecrista chamaecristoides (Collad.) Greene var. chamaecristoides

  • Type

    Holotypus, the description of 17. Cassia chamaecrista Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8, 1768 (non Linnaeus, 1753)! Typotypus, labelled "Senna spuria mimosae foliis fructescens et procumbens, flore maximo, siliquis glabris. Veracruz, Houston, BM (hb. Mill.; cf.

  • Synonyms

    Cassia chamaecrista L., Cassia chamaecristoides Collad., Cassia cinerea Schltdl. & Cham., Chamaecrista cinerea (Schltdl. & Cham.) Pollard ex A.Heller, Chamaecrista chamaecristoides (Collad.) Greene

  • Description

    Species Description - Characters as given in key .-Collections: 36.

    Distribution and Ecology - Coastal dunes, beaches and stabalized sand flats behind barrier dunes, below 5 m, locally abundant around the Gulf of Mexico between the mouth of río Pánuco in extreme s.-e. Tamaulipas and Isla del Carmen in Campeche; disjunct on coasts of s. Jalisco and w. Michoacán. -Fl. irregularly throughout the year.

  • Discussion

    Within var. chamaecristoides as delimited by facies and dune habitat we encounter the familiar pattern of variable pubescence, the foliage varying from bright green to gray-strigulose, the stems from incurved-puberulent to pilosulous, and the pod from glabrous to pilosulous. The typus of Cassia cinerea is simply a gray-pubescent extreme in a continuous series of variants. This was already well understood by Bentham, whose account is at fault only in the nomenclature, due to misinterpretation of the type of C. chamaecristoides, which he transferred to the synonymy of the endemic west Indian C. pygmaea. Houston’s plant in the Miller herbarium (BM), which stands behind Miller’s description of C. chamaecrista and thus in turn behind C. chamaecristoides Colladon, is certainly, as first pointed out by Rose (1909, p. 267) and confirmed by Britton & Rose (1930, p.  267), the plant still common on shores around and near the city of Veracruz. Greene's false equation C. chamaecristoides = Ch. depressa (Pittonia 4: 29. 1899) introduced the epithet chamaecristoides temporarily into the literature of southern United States, but once rectified by Britton an Rose (l.c.) has left no futher imprint.

  • Distribution

    Mexico North America| Michoacán Mexico North America| Jalisco Mexico North America| Tamaulipas Mexico North America| Campeche Mexico North America|