Calliandra pauciflora

  • Title

    Calliandra pauciflora

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Calliandra pauciflora (A.Rich.) Griseb.

  • Description

    59.  Calliandra pauciflora (A. Richard) Grisebach, Pl. Wright. 180, in nota sub C. colletioidi. 1860 = Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts II, 8: 180. 1861. Acacia pauciflora A. Richard in Sagra, Hist. Phys. Cuba, Pl. Vasc. 461. 1846. — "Crescit in insula Cuba." — Holotypus, R. de la Sagra s.n. P (hb. Rich.) n.v., but examined by Bässler, 1990: 203. — Provisionally but incorrectly referred by Bentham (1875: 634) to genus Pithecellobium. — Anneslia pauciflora Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 75. 1928. Calliandra pauciflora subsp. pauciflora Bassler, Gleditschia 18: 204. 1990.

    Anneslia nipensis Britton & Rose., N. Amer. Fl. 23: 76. 1928. —... between Piedra Gorda and Woodfred, Oriente, Cuba, January 13, 1910, [J. A.] Shafer 3710." — Holotypus, NY!. — Calliandra nipensis Morton, Contr. Ocas. Mus. Hist. Nat. Colegio "De La Salle" 10: 238. 1951. C. pauciflora subsp. nipensis Bässler, Gleditschia 18: 205. 1990. Calliandra pauciflora sensu Combs, Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 7: 419. 1897; Leon & Alain, 1951: 238.

    C. nipensis sensu Leon & Alain, 1951: 238.

    Thorny microphyll shrubs, stiffly repeatedly branched, either broad and diffuse 3-10 dm or potentially arborescent to 6 m, with virgate livid long-shoots, the primary lvs early shed and the lvs at anthesis mostly clustered on acaulous brachyblasts, the nodes of long-shoots armed with a pair of ascending straight or outwardly curved spinescent stipules, the young branchlets, lf-axes, and the dorsal face and margin of some lfts finely pilosulous with white hairs 0.1-0.6 mm, the minute firm lfts plane sublustrous, the few-fld capitula solitary on brachyblasts, either shortly pedunculate or subsessile; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules of primary lvs 1—2.5(—3.5) mm, tapering from confluent base, externally nerveless, those of brachyblasts much smaller, not indurated. Lf- formula i/(2—)3—6(—7); lf-stks 0.4—1.4 mm; pinna-rachises 2-6 mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.1-0.6 mm; lfts sessile, accrescent upward along rachis, the furthest pair sometimes shorter and broader, the blades mostly linear-oblong or -oblanceolate from oblique or shallowly semicordate base, straight, obtuse, the penultimate pair 1.3-3.6 x 0.5-1.1 mm, 2.6-4 times as long as wide; venation immersed, the slightly eccentric midrib sometimes barely perceptible on dorsal face. Peduncles 1-3.5(-4) mm, ebracteate; capitula (1—)2—4-fld, the receptacle <1 mm; floral bracts linear-lanceolate or narrowly ovate 0.8-1.2 mm, 1-nerved, persistent; fls sessile, the perianth either 4- or 5-merous, glabrous or nearly so, both calyx and corolla strongly 4-5-nerved, 4-5-angulate; calyx 2.1-3.4 mm, the campanulate or narrowly campanulate tube 0.7-1.2 mm diam, the narrowly lanceolate acute teeth 0.8-1.4 mm; corolla (3.5-)4.1-6 mm, the erect lanceolate lobes 0.8-1.4 mm; androecium (8-)12-26-merous, ±14—17(-?) mm, the tube (2.8-)3.5-7 mm, from 1 mm shorter to 1.5 mm longer than corolla, the stemonozone ±0.5 mm, the tassel described as pink, red, or purple-violet; ovary at anthesis glabrous; disc 0. Pods (scarcely known) 2-6 x 0.4—0.7 cm, dark brown, glabrous; seeds (Bassler, 1990) 3-5 x 5 mm, pleurogrammic.

    In arid savanna and in carrasco on dry stony hillsides, ±100-800 m, discontinuously scattered over Cuba, from Pinar del Río to Oriente (vide Bässler, 1990, Karte 3). — Fl. IV-VI, probably at other times.

    Calliandra pauciflora is the one species of its genus armed with truly spinescent stipules, though only those stipules that subtend primary leaves of long-shoots are thus modified, not those of the floriferous brachyblasts. In general habit the species resembles the sympatric Sphinga prehensilis (C. Wright) Barneby & Grimes, but has much shorter perianth and androecial tube and, of course, the fruit and dehiscence of genuine Calliandra.