Zygia hernandezii

  • Title

    Zygia hernandezii

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Zygia hernandezii (C.Barbosa) L.Rico

  • Description

    26. Zygia hernandezii (Barbosa) L. Rico, Kew Bull. 46: 501. 1991. Pithecellobium hernandezii Barbosa, Caldasia 14: 401. 1986. — “COLOMBIA, Cundinamarca, 200 m de la carretera que de Zipacón conduce a Cachipay ... 18 Jun 1982, C. Barbosa 1785” — Holotypus, Barbosa 1785 ex parte, 18 Jun, fl. & fr., COL 311030!; paratypi, from type locality, Barbosa 1785 ex parte, 19 Jun, leaves, COL 284054; J. H. Idrobo & J. Hernández 1543, COL 72399!.

    Pithecellobium hernandezii sensu Barbosa, 1991: 324.

    Macrophyllidious narrow-crowned trees 5-10 m with trunk attaining ±2 dm dbh, the young stems, stipules, and lf-axes densely softly pilosulous with fine brownish hairs to 0.5-0.7 mm, the thinly chartaceous, dull olivaceous lfts puberulent along principal nerves, otherwise glabrous, the short dense racemes of reddish fls borne on trunk and some annotinous branchlets below the current foliage. Stipules narrowly lanceolate or lance-caudate 5-13 (-"16") x 1-2 mm, 3-5-nerved, tardily deciduous. Lf-formula i/3½-4½; petiole 2.4—3.2 cm, at middle 1.2-2 mm diam, charged at apex with a subsessile, cupular thick-rimmed nectary ±1-1.5 mm diam; pinnae widely ascending, the rachis 6-16 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 2-3.5 cm, the ventral groove bridged; lft-pulvinules in dorsal view ±2.5 cm; lfts subaccrescent distally, the blades lance-elliptic from inequilateral (antically semiacute, postically semicordate) base, slenderly acuminate, the distal ones 7-11 x 2-4.3 cm, 2.5-3.7 times as long as wide; midrib straight or a trifle incurved distally, only slightly forwardly displaced from midblade, pinnately branched, the major, incurved-ascending secondary and all tertiary and reticular venules finely prominulous on both faces. Peduncle and raceme-axis together ±2 cm, the rachis to 85-fld, 10-12 x 1.2-1.8 mm; bracts linear-oblanceolate ±1 mm, caducous; pedicels 1—4.3 x 0.3-0.45 mm; fls homomorphic 5-merous, the perianth finely minutely subappressed-pilosulous overall, the corolla finely ±20-striate; pedicels (1-) 1.7-4 (-"4.5") mm; calyx hemispherical 1.5-1.8 x 1.8-3.1 mm, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.5-0.8 mm, the sinuses between them commonly more deeply split in age; corolla tubular-trumpet-shaped 9-14 mm, at top of tube ±3-5 mm diam, the ovate lobes 2-3 mm; androecium 30-34 mm, 28-34(-"40")-merous, the stemonozone 1.6-1.8 mm, the tube 5.5-6 mm, the tassel red; intrastaminal nectary 0.5-0.9 mm; ovary at anthesis glabrous. Pods pendulous, in profile broad-linear 17-44 x 1.8-2.3 cm, laterally compressed but biconvex when distended by the 14-24 obese seeds, the valves thin-textured and brittle when ripe, externally densely brown-velutinous overall; seeds contiguous along the cavity and truncate at each end by crowding, in broad view 18-22 x 12-15 mm, the papery testa dull brown, wrinkled, lacking pleurogram.

    In microhabitat unreported, near 1900-2100 m, known only from the type locality on the headwaters of Río Apulo near Zipacón, at 4°45'N, 74°25'W on the W slope of Cordillera Oriental in Cundinamarca, Colombia. — Not mapped. — Fl. VI(—?); fr. VI, XII, the full cycle unknown. — Girasol, rayado.

    Zygia hernandezii closely resembles Z. lehmannii in foliage and indumentum and seems to differ at anthesis only by slightly smaller flower and distinctly fewer stamens. The elongate velutinous fruits of Z. hernandezii are remarkable, but whether they are diagnostic is contingent on discovery of those of Z. lehmannii, which are still unknown.

    The species was named in honor of one of its discoverers, J. I. Hernández-Camacho.