Chloroleucon mangense var. vincentis

  • Title

    Chloroleucon mangense var. vincentis

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Chloroleucon mangense var. vincentis (Benth.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes

  • Description

    10c. Chloroleucon mangense var. vincentis (Bentham) Barneby & Grimes, comb. et stat. nov. Pithecolobium vincentis Bentham, Trans Linn. Soc. London 30: 597. 1875. — "Isle of St. Vincent’s, Guilding." — Holotypus, K(herb. hooker)!. —Acacia vincentis (Bentham) Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. I. 222. 1860. Chloroleucon vincentis (Bentham) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 37. 1928. — Equated by R. A. Howard, 1988: 372, with Pithecellobium tortum Martius.

    Pithecellobium caraboboense Harms, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 8: 51. 1921. — "Venezuela: Staat Carabobo, zwisch. Las Trincheras und La Entrada, bei P[uerto] Cabello (PITTIER n. 8820 — Mai 1920 . . .)." —Holotypus, presumably †B; isotypi, NY!, US 1065245!. — Cathormium caraboboense (Harms) Pittier, Arb. Legum. 1: 55. 1927. Chloroleucon carabobense [sic] (Harms) Pittier, Man. Pl. Usual. Venez., Supl. 35. 1939, without direct citation of protologue.

    Chloroleucon bogotense Britton & Killip, Ann. New York Acad. Sci. 35: 129. 1936. — "Anapoima, near Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia, 500 m altitude, Triana 4481 ..." — Holotypus, NY!; isotypi, US 939711!, W!. Pithecolobium tortum sensu Pittier, Man. Pl. Usual. Venez. 198. 1926, non Martius.

    Lvs glabrous, or more commonly the lf-axes and often one or both faces of lfts pilosulous; lf-formula ii—iv/(5—)6—11(—12), the lfts oblong or oblong-elliptic to -obovate, the larger ones becoming at maturity (6.5-)7-14(-20) x 2.5-7.5(-9) mm, (1.7)1.9-2.8 times as long as wide. Pods usually falcate, 10-14 mm wide, the sutures not constricted between seeds.

    In deciduous scrub-woodland, surviving disturbance in fences, in Venezuela and Lesser Antilles from near sea level up to ±400 m, in Colombia attaining 800 m, along the coast and on hillsides in the interior of Venezuela from Falcon E to Monagas and Anzoátegui, disjunctly N to the islands of St. Vincent and Martinique, and S in xerophytic woodland of the Magdalena valley in Cundinamarca and Huila, Colombia. — Map 42. — Fl. abundantly IV-VI, intermittently later. — Angarillo, raspayuco (Colombia); cogicillo, quebrado, quiebrarhacha (Venezuela).

    The early collections of var. vincentis were referred by Bentham, in his mature judgment, to Pithecellobium tortum, and his example was followed until very recently. Harms distinguished P. caraboboense by pubescent foliage, but glabrous and pubescent plants, otherwise alike, collected subsequently in the state of Carabobo are clearly conspecific. Before the falcately recurved fruit takes its characteristic form the glabrous state of var. vincentis does indeed resemble Ch. tortum; but the fruit indicates a very close relationship with var. mangense, vicariant immediately westward, from Maracaibo basin into Panama. The variety is only precariously distinguished from var. lentiscifolium by a broader fruit, but the majority of populations, outside the state of Falcón, have rather more numerous and smaller leaflets. Fruiting specimens of Ch. bogotense, which Britton did not see, seem indistinguishable from some Venezuelan var. vincentis.