Chapmannia floridana Torr. & A.Gray
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Erect perennial herb arising from fleshy tap root (without nodules) up to 50 cm long and 2 cm in diameter and occasionally more or less moniliform. One to 20 stems (dying to ground each winter) per rootstock, each up to 1 m long, appressed villous and with pustular based viscid hairs on branches of inflorescence, brac- teoles, calyx and fruit. Leaves primarily restricted to lower half of plant, with achlorophyllous pulvinus, becoming appressed toward stem at night, imparipinnate with 3-9 leaflets, 3-6 cm long, short-petiolate; stipules subulate. Leaflets 0.5-2 cm long, obovate, elliptic or oblanceolate to lanceolate, mucronate, villous beneath, with achlorophyllous pulvinule, becoming reflexed at night, exstipellate. Panicle terminal, side branches short, subtended by reduced leaves. Flowers two to four per branch, sessile except for terminal one, subtended by three bracteoles, maturing acropetally. Hypanthium glabrous, 2-3 mm long, tubular. Calyx hirsute viscid and villous, membranous, with upper three or four lobes connate nearly to apex and lower lobe or lobes distinct. Corolla orangish-yellow, ephemeral. Standard suborbicular, up to 1.4 cm long. Wings obliquely obovate, up to 1.8 cm long and spreading. Keel incurved, obtuse, up to 1.2 cm long with margins tightly overlapping above, with 2 mm wide apical aperture through which style pro- trudes. Stamens 10, monadelphous, their filaments connate into closed tube for one-half their length with free portions alternating long and short making uniform basifixed anthers two-ranked. Ovary with scattered hairs, sessile, 1 mm long, 1- 4-ovulate, with elongate filiform glabrous hollow style 14 mm long and minute terminal stigma. Fruit linear, subterete, 1-4-segmented loment, 1-3 cm long, upper suture nearly straight and lower sinuate, villous, with conspicuous longi- tudinal veins bearing reddish (turning brown on maturation) viscid hairs. Loment segments disarticulating on plant, bearing white cleavage surfaces (upper with only one because style indurate), with 9-14 vascular bundle scars. Seed 3.5 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, yellowish, with curved embryonic axis. Germination epigeal. n = 11, 2n = 22.
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Discussion
Figs. 1-3.
Torrey and Gray (1838-1840) cited two specimens, "Dr. Burrows!" and "Dr. Leavenworth!," but did not annotate any extant sheet as a type. Two sheets have been located, one at GH and the other at NY, which may have been available to Torrey and Gray. The GH sheet has been rubber stamped "isotype," but there is no evidence that it is an isotype. On the other hand the NY sheet was studied by Dr. Torrey and is accepted and labelled as the holotype for four reasons: 1) its handwritten label appears to have been written by a clerk or assistant of Dr. Torrey, 2) Torrey wrote "Dr. Leavenworth" on the label before it was labelled "Chapmania Floridana," 3) Torrey at an older age is believed to have written "Chapmania Floridana" on the sheet, and 4) the drawings on the sheet are char- acteristic of Torrey's dissections. The analyses of the handwritings and drawings were provided by Rupert Barneby (personal communication).