Tabebuia haemantha (Bertero ex Spreng.) A. DC.

• Title

  Tabebuia haemantha (Bertero ex Spreng.) A. DC.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Tabebuia haemantha (Bertero ex Spreng.) A.DC.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Tabebuia haemantha Roble colorado Family Bignoniaceae Trumpet-creeper Family Bignonia haemantha Bertero; Sprengel, Systema Vegetabilium 2: 832.1825. Tabebuia haemantha De Candolle, Prodromus 9: 214. 1845. Spathodea portoricensis Bello, Apuntes para la Flora de Puerto Rico 63. 1881. Carlo Guiseppe Bertero, who first gave a botanical name to this endemic, small tree or shrub of Porto Rico, was an Italian botanist who made large collections in the West Indies and in South America, visiting Porto Rico in 1819 and 1820, where he obtained the original specimens from which it was described. It is most abundant in the dry, southern and southwestern districts, ranging from the vicinity of Guayama westward to the Mona Passage, at lower and middle elevations, and its bright red flowers are conspicuous. Its Spanish name, if directly translated into English, would mean Red Oak; the wood of this tree and of its relatives is hard and durable, and was supposed, when first known to Spanish lumbermen, to closely resemble that of oak-trees; the Porto Rico Flora contains 4 other species, and 1 additional grows on the island Mona. The generic name Tabebuia, published by Gomez in 1803, is the Brazilian appellation of the typical species, native of that country; some 75 different species are known, all tropical American, many West Indian, in distribution. They have opposite, stalked leaves, those of some species palmately compound, those of others simple, and of still others 1-foliolate. Their large and showy flowers are borne in terminal clusters; the tubular calyx is toothed, or cleft; the corolla is various, in some species salverform, in others funnelform, its 5-lobed limb regular or oblique; there are 4 stamens in 2 pairs, shorter than the corolla; the ovary is stalkless and contains many ovules. The fruit is a slender, elongated capsule, which splits longitudinally, releasing the many, winged seeds. Tabebuia haemantha (blood-flower), is a shrub or small tree, occasionally 8 meters high, as observed by us, but recorded as reaching 15 meters. Its leaves are short-stalked, with from 3 to 5, dull green, leathery leaflets, mostly elliptic to oblong, from 4 to 15 centimeters long, blunt or pointed, sometimes minutely scaly, without teeth. The flowers are stalked, sometimes numerous, the clusters 8-15 centimeters broad; the calyx is from 9 to 15 millimeters long, its lobes short; the red or crimson corolla is nearly salverform, its tube from 3 to 5 centimeters long, its limb 1.5 to 2 centimeters broad, with rounded lobes. The fruit is from 5 to 11 centimeters long, about 1 centimeter thick, the seeds broadly winged at each end. Our illustration was first published in Addisonia, plate 333, June, 1925.