Adipera stahlii (Urb.) Britton & Rose ex Britton & P.Wilson
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Endemic species can not always be confidently associated with those from which they have been evolved, but in the case of this one we may be reasonably certain that the widely distributed Adipera bicapsularis has been the ancestor, the two being strikingly similar, but with differences in shape of leaflets, length of flower-stalks, of petals, and in relative thickness of pods. This shrub is restricted in distribution to middle and higher altitudes in wet or moist parts of east-central Porto Rico, inhabiting woodlands, thickets and banks of streams; we have no record of its occurances at altitudes lower than about 500 meters. The type specimens, used for the first description of the species, were collected between Guayama and Guamani, and the shrub is still plentiful in that region, and, locally, near Aibonito and Cayey. For an account of the genus, we refer to our description of Adipera bicapsularis. Adipera Stahlii (named in honor of Doctor Agustin Stahl) is smooth throughout, or the flower-clusters somewhat hairy; it may become about 4 meters high, or long. The leaves, from 5 to about 8 centimeters long, have from 3 to 5 pairs of leaflets with an oblong gland between the lowest pair, or between all the pairs; the leaflets, from 1 to 3 centimeters long, are rounded at both ends, oblong, oval, or the lowest pair nearly orbicular, and usually smaller than the others. The flowers are several or many together in axillary and terminal clusters, the individual ones on slender stalks from 1 to 3 centimeters long; the broadly ovate sepals, 6 or 7 millimeters long, are about one-half as long as the obovate, purplish-veined petals. The nearly cylindric pod is about 15 centimeters long, or shorter, and from 1 to 1.5 centimeters thick, the dark brown seeds somewhat larger than those of Adipera bicapsularis.
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Discussion
Velamuerto Doctor Stahl's Adipera Senna Family Cassia Stahlii Urban, Symbolae Antillanae 1: 316. 1899. Adipera Stahlii Britton and Rose; Britton and Wilson, Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands 5: 370. 1924.