Mimosa pudica var. pastoris

Title

Mimosa pudica var. pastoris

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Mimosa pudica var. pastoris Barneby

Description

379c. Mimosa pudica Linnaeus var. pastoris Barneby, var. nov., ab aliis speciei formis caulibus petiolisque omnino inermibus necnon leguminis valvulis simul totis dense puberulis ac dense delicatim setosis diversa, caeterius cum var. tetrandra congrua.—Guyana. Sand Creek, Rupununi River, VIII/48 (fl, fr), Wilson-Brown 23 in Forest Dept. British Guiana.—Holotypus, NY.

Characters as given in key to varieties; stems hispidulous in the specimens seen, but indumentum said by the collector to be variable.

In damp places on savanna, ± 200 m, known only from the Rupununi valley near 3°S in s.-w. Guyana.-Fl. (?-)VII-IX(-?). Map 59.

Over much of the range of M. pudica sensu lato the valves of the pod are glabrous. Locally in northern Roraima, Brazil the faces of the pod are puberulent and sometimes also finely thinly setulose. The extreme variant here described as var. pastoris (in memory of the discoverer, Father Wilson-Brown) has the indumentum of the pod much augmented and simultaneously has lost all cauline aculei. More collections are needed to demonstrate the constancy of these characters.