Calliandra purpurea

  • Title

    Calliandra purpurea

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Calliandra purpurea (L.) Benth.

  • Description

    40. Calliandra purpurea (Linnaeus) Bentham, London J. Bot. 3: 104. 1844, based directly on Inga purpurea (Linnaeus) Willdenow, Sp. Pl 4(2): 1021.1806-"Habitat in Martinica," which = Mimosa purpurea Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 517. 1753. — "Habitat in America meridionali." — Based wholly on Acacia frutescens non aculeata, flore purpurascente Plumier ed. Burmann, Pl. Amer. t. X, fig. 2 (bottom right + misplaced caption bottom left). — Holotypus (Howard, Fl. Lesser Antilles 4: 350. 1988), Plumier’s figure, cited above!. — Feuilleea purpurea O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 188. 1891. Anneslia purpurea Britton, Brooklyn Bot. Gard. Mem. 1: 50. 1918.

    Inga obtusifolia Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 4(2): 1022. 1806. — "Habitat in Cumana [Sucre, Venezuela]." — Holotypus, Humboldt 260 labeled "Cumana, an 8," B-WILLD (seen in Microform)!. —Mimosa obtusifolia Poiret, Encycl. Suppl. 1: 46. 1810. — Calliandra obtusifolia Karsten, Fl. Columb. 2: 41, t. 121 (left, the type-locality elaborated to Río Manzanare, 300 ft elev.). 1863. — Equated by Kunth (1824: 301) and Bentham (1875: 547) with C. purpurea.

    Calliandra coroensis Karsten, Fl. Columb. 2: 41, t. 121 (right). 1863. — "Habitat regiones aridas calidasque provinciae Venezuelensis Coro [state of Falcón]." — Holotypus to be sought at W. — Equated with C. purpurea by Bentham (1875: 547).

    C. purpurea var. dussiana Stehl,, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris) II, 8(2): 192. 1946. — Said to correspond exactly with C. purpurea (Linnaeus) Bentham, so best considered = C. purpurea var. purpurea, the autonym generated by the next.

    C. purpurea var. quentiniana Stehle Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris) II, 8(2): 192. 1946. — "... Stehle et Quentin n. 5546 ... [Guadeloupe] Pointe Noire ... Deshaies, par Ferry ... 3 septembre 1944." — Holotypus, P n.v.; isotypus, NY!.

    C. slaneae Howard, Phytologia 61: 3. 1986. — "St. Lucia, 3 miles northeast of Dennery, May 15, 1985, V[erna] Slane 541!' — Holotypus, A!.

    Inga purpurea sensu de Candolle, 1825: 439; Calliandra purpurea sensu Bentham, 1875: 546; Britton & Killip, 1936: 193. Anneslia purpurea sensu Britton & Rose, 1923: 60.

    Calliandra purpurea + vars. dussiana et quentiniana sensu Stehle & Quentin, Fl. Guadeloupe Martinique 2(3): 41. 1949; Foumet, Fl. Guadeloupe Martinique 694, 695. 1978.

    Stiffly branched, arborescent shrubs flowering when 1.5-6 m tall, with pallid, either straight or flexuous, usually densely foliate long-shoots and epidermis soon exfoliating in strips, either glabrous except for minutely puberulent lf-axes and peduncles or the new growth and lfts finely pilosulous with erect-incurved, pallid or sordid hairs to 0.15-0.35 mm, the mature lfts firm, facially lustrous, dark above, paler beneath, the capitula arising, mostly singly, from efoliate nodes of condensed or sometimes longer and loosely thatched brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules obtusely deltate or broad-lanceolate 1.2-4.5(-6) x 0.7-2 mm, when young striately 6-11-nerved, becoming dry pallescent, mostly persistent. Lf-formula i/3-7 (on Montserrat and Guadeloupe -9); lf-stks (l-)2-12(-30) mm, at middle 0.3-0.8 mm diam, narrowly grooved ventrally, dilated at tip; pinna-rachises (11-) 15-38 (-62) mm, the longer interfoliolar segments (2.5-)3.5- 9 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.3-1 x 0.3-0.8 mm; lfts usually ± accrescent distally, sometimes subequilong, sub- equiform (the furthest pair then not obviously longer and narrower), the blades oblong or inequilaterally (ob)ovate (rarely oblong-rhombic) from semi-cordate base, broadly obtuse mucronulate, the penultimate ones (7-)9-20 x (3.5-)4-ll mm, 1.5-2.3(-2.5) times as long as wide; venation palmate-pinnate, the almost straight midrib displaced to divide blade ±1:1.5, the strong inner posteRíor primary nerve incurved-ascending beyond mid-blade, the outer one much shorter, the secondary and reticular venulation prominulous on both faces. Peduncles 0.8-5 cm, bracteate near or below middle or ebracteate, thickened in fruit; capitula 9-22-fld, the fls (sub)sessile, homomorphic as to perianth but either staminate or bisexual and the staminal tube varying in length between populations; perianth 4-or 5-merous, glabrous, pallid; calyx campanulate or deeply campanulate 1—2.3(—3.3) x 1-1.8 mm, the obtuse teeth 0.15-0.3 mm; corolla 5-7(-7.8) mm, the lobes 1.4—2 mm; androecium 10-16(-18)-merous, red throughout, 22-34(-39) mm, the tube (4.5-)5.5-14.5 mm, 1 mm shorter to 7 mm longer than the corolla, the disc in bisexual fls 0.4 mm tall, in staminate fls obsolete; ovary glabrous. Pods glabrous, stiffly erect, 5.5-9 x 0.8-1.1 mm, the thickened sutural ribs 2.5-3 mm wide in dorsal view, the recessed plane valves faintly obliquely venulose; seeds 6-8.6 x 4—6.2 mm, the smooth brown testa dark-speckled, pleurogrammic.

    In semideciduous scrub woodland and chaparral, on seasonally dry hills in shallow soil, locally plentiful below 500 m in the Lesser Antilles, on the Caribbean slope in n. Venezuela and n.-e. Colombia, and remotely disjunct in s. Guyana and e. equatorial Colombia: in the Antilles native on almost all the islands s.-ward from St. Kitts and Antigua, cultivated in its native range and further n.; in Venezuela local in Sucre, and in Falcón and Lara; in n. Colombia local in Atlántico and Magdalena (to be expected in Guajira); in Amazonian Colombia (introduced " chiribiquete")-, in Guyana, perhaps varietally distinct in slightly longer perianth (calyx to 3.3 mm, corolla to 7.8 mm), at 500 m on the Kanuku Mts. — Map 23. — Flowering throughout the year, but most prolifically following rains. — Buisson ardent, bois patate (French Antilles, in reference to red filaments and tuberiferous roots); soldier bush (former British West Indies, the vivid red capitula recalling uniformed Redcoats).

    Leaflet size and leaflet number vary considerably between populations of C. purpurea on the Lesser Antilles and between those scattered along the Caribbean slope in Venezuela and Colombia. The following numbers of leaflet-pairs (per pinna of primary leaves) are on record: Antigua: 5; Montserrat and Guadeloupe: 6-8(-9); Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines: mostly 3-4, rarely 6; northern Venezuela: (2-)3, 4, or 5; northern Colombia: 4—7. Plumier’s drawing, which furnished the Linnaean protologue, shows 3 and 4 pairs; the model very likely came from Martinique, as did that of var. dussiana, which is essentially typical C. purpurea. The populations with 6-8 pairs of leaflets on Montserrat and Guadeloupe correspond with var. quentiniana, and are mildly distinctive; however, 6-7 pairs recur in Magdalena, Colombia. Calliandra slaneae, with 3-4 pairs, is interpreted as the xeromorphic extreme from arid insular habitats. Venezuelan C. obtusifolia (from Sucre) and C. coroensis (from Falcón), with respectively 4-6 and (2-)3 pairs of leaflets per pinna, were long ago equated with C. purpurea by Bentham. The geographically remote population in Guyana (A. C. Smith 3168, K, NY) was identified as C. purpurea by Sandwith and appears at very most varietally distinct from Caribbean C. purpurea in slightly larger flowers. Finally, size of leaflets and pubescence of leaflets are randomly correlated with dispersal and offer no firm basis for segregation.