Tabebuia insignis var. orinocensis Sandwith

  • Authority

    Maguire, Bassett & Wurdack, John J. 1957. The Botany of the Guiana Highland -- Part II. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 9 (3): 235-392.

  • Family

    Bignoniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tabebuia insignis var. orinocensis Sandwith

  • Description

    Latin Diagnosis - Juxta var. insignem atque var. monophyllam Sandw. ponenda necnon ulterius comparanda, foliis 1-3-foliolatis, foliolis pro rata satis parvis lateralibus basi sessilibus obliquis inaequilateris junioribus subtus nonnunquam velutino-lanatotomentosis, capsulis pro rata latis, alis seminum pro rata longis notabilis.

    Species Description - Shrub, nearly leafless at the time of flowering. Leaves, when 1-foliolate, with a short petiole 1-3 cm long, the lamina attached without an evident petiolule to a joint at the swollen apex of the petiole, elliptic, very shortly broadly obtusely acuminate at the apex, attenuate to the cuneate base, 6-13 cm long, up to 4.5 cm broad, coriaceous, when very young sometimes wooly-tomentose and velvety beneath, copiously lepidote on both surfaces, otherwise glabrous, main lateral nerves about 7 on each side of the midrib, arcuate-ascending; 3-foliolate leaves with petioles 4 cm or more long, and with sessile lateral leaflets which are conspicuously oblique and unequal-sided at the base, the terminal leaflet with a petiolule up to 1.5 cm long, the leaflets with measurements not exceeding those of the 1-foliolate leaves. Calyx 1.2-1.7 cm long, about 1 cm broad, unequally and irregularly lobed, more or less lepidote, eglandular. Corolla white, the tube and throat yellow within, the hairs on the anterior inner side of the tube short and stiff. Capsule rostrate-acuminate at the apex, 10-15 cm long, 1.3-2 cm broad. Seeds up to 4 cm broad, the body greyish, the wings membranous, white and hyaline-shining, 1.4-1.7 cm in length (i.e. in relation to the axis of the body).

  • Discussion

    This interesting taxon may deserve a higher rank but, for the present, I cannot separate it as more than a distinctive edaphic and perhaps geographic variety of a polymorphic species T. insignis, to which I have already reduced T. longipes Baker as var. monophylla; also suggesting (in Dr. J. A. Steyermark's "Contributions to the Flora of Venezuela") that T. roraimae and T. dura (But. &K.Schum.) Sprague & Sandw. are quite probably habitat and, at least in the instance of T. roraimae, altitude forms or varieties of the same species. The unifoliolate leaves of the collection 28993 cited above are velvety-tomentose beneath, while some of those of 37702 are also very distinctly pubescent on the lower surface. Of the material seen by me only the type collection shows both unifoliolate and 3-foliolate leaves, but 37702 is noted on the label as bearing 1-3-foliolate leaves.

  • Distribution

    VENEZUELA: Territorio de Amazonas: locally frequent on laja on Isla Raton, Rib Orinoco, between Sanariapo and San Fernando de Atabapo, 120 m, fl. and fr. Feb. 1954, B. Maguire, J. J. Wurdack & G. S. Bunting 37701 (Kew). VENEZUELA: Amazonas: frequent on crystalline laja 1-1.5 km east of Hotel Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho, 100-120 m, fl. and fr. Feb. 1954, Maguire, Wurdack & Bunting 37702; in open scrub savanna on white sand. Cerro Sipapo (Paraque), 200 m, fr. Feb. 1949, B. Maguire & L. Politi 28977

    Venezuela South America|