Albizia carbonaria

Title

Albizia carbonaria

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Albizia carbonaria Britton

Description

12. Albizia carbonaria Britton, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico Virgin Is. 6(3): 348. 1926. — "Grown at the forest station Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, from seedlings received in 1921, from the Bureau of Plant Industry; the seed was procured from Palmira [Valle de Cauca], Colombia, in 1920. Type collected by C. L. Bates, October, 1924, at the Forest Station, Río Piedras ..." — Holotypus, NY!; paratypi, Britton & al. in 1923, 1924 & 1925, NY!. — Pithecellobium carbonarium (Britton) Niezgoda & Nevling, Phytologia 44: 310. 1979. —Acacia sp. seu Carbonero Britton, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico Virgin Is. 5(3): 355 (in nota). 1924.

Albizia malacocarpa Standley [in Standley & Calderon, Lista PI. Salvador 96. 1925, nom. nud.] ex Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 44. 1928. — "Type from San Salvador, El Salvador, Calderón 2042, a fruiting specimen; description of flowers taken from [R.S.] Williams 952, Cana [= Pirre, Darien], Panama." — Syntypi, NY!; isosyntypus, (2042), US 1169954]. — Equated with Pithecellobium carbonarium by Britton & Killip, 1936: 131; and by Nielsen, 1985: 47.

Albizia sumatrana v. Steenis, Encycl. Ned.-Ind., ed. 2, Suppl. 6: 864. 1931 & Blumea 5: 509, pl. 1.1945. Equated with A. carbonaria by Nielsen, 1985: 47.

Trees of rapid growth flowering at 4—6 m but potentially attaining 30 m and with a long-unbranched trunk to 9 dm dbh, the nearly smooth bark exfoliating in long flakes, the crown at maturity broad and open, the young branches and all lf- and inflorescence-axes villous-tomentulose with fine golden or rusty hairs to 0.25-0.6(-0.75) mm, the lvs prominently bicolored, the membranous plane lfts above dull dark green (brittle and brunnescent when dried) and minutely puberulent, beneath pale green, puberulent and barbellate on anterior side of midrib, the inflorescence a panicle of proximally foliate, distally efoliate pseudo racemes of fasciculate umbelliform capitula terminal to main stem and branchlets, surpassed by uppermost lvs. Stipules membranous lance-elliptic 2-4 mm, caducous at earliest expansion of associated lf, absent from mature specimens. Lf-formula viii—xiii/( 18—)20— 30; lf-stk of major lvs of fertile branches 8-17 (of seedling lvs, no further mentioned, -28) cm, the petiole including poorly differentiated pulvinus 2-4(-4.5) cm, at middle 0.7-1.4 mm diam, the longer interpinnal segments 7-13 mm, the ventral groove continuous between pinna-pairs; petiolar nectary often lacking or reduced to a minute pore recessed into petiolar groove, but erratically present, situated near or somewhat below midpetiole, shallow-cupular, grossly marginate, in profile 0.5-1 mm tall and 1-4 mm diam, fuscous; pinnae proximally decrescent, otherwise subequilong, the rachis of longer ones (3-)3.5-7.5(-8) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (1.3—)1.5—2.8 (-3) mm; pulvinules in dorsal view 0.2-0.4(-0.5) mm; lfts decrescent at very ends of rachis, elsewhere equi- long, the blades asymmetrically linear-oblong, lance- elliptic or narrowly ovate-oblong from shallowly semicordate base, abruptly minutely deltate-apiculate, the larger ones 4.5-8 x (—1.3)1.5—3.2 mm, 2.7-3.8(-4.4) times as long as wide; midrib displaced to divide blade 1:2—4(—5), slightly or scarcely falcate, immersed above, sharply prominulous beneath, a faint secondary venulation visible in some larger lfts but wholly immersed. Peduncles fasciculate by 3-6(-7), the longest of each fascicle 1.8-4.6 cm; capitula without filaments 11-16 mm diam, the whitish fls dimorphic, the peripheral ones elevated on pedicel ±1.5-4 mm, the terminal fl sessile, the receptacle including short drum-shaped pediment of terminal fl 1-2 mm, the perianth of all fls 5-merous and golden-silky-puberulent externally; PERIPHERAL FLS: calyx narrowly campanulate (2.3-)2.5-3.5 x (1.2—)1.5—1.8 mm, the incurved obtuse teeth 0.6-1.2 mm; corolla (4—)4.4-6.4 mm, the erect lobes (1.1—)1.4-2.1 mm, the 5 segments in age separating to base; androecium white 19-24- merous, 13-16.5 mm, the stemonozone 0.5-0.8 mm, the tube (1.7-)2-3.3(-4) mm; ovary slenderly ellipsoid, symmetrically conical at apex; style 1-3 mm longer than longest stamen, 0.1-0.15 mm diam; TERMINAL FL: calyx 3.7-4.5 x 1.7-2.1 mm; corolla 7-9 mm; stamens either as many or twice as many as in peripheral fls (±24-45), the free part of filaments sometimes a little dilated. Pods solitary or to 3 per capitulum, stipitate, the stipe 4-14 mm, the narrowly elliptic-oblong straight body 7-12 x 1.5-2.35 cm, broadly cuneate at base, rounded at apex but apiculate by the style-base, piano-compressed except where low-colliculate over ripe seeds, framed by straight sutures ±0.8-1 mm thick, the papery valves brown and tomentulose externally, pallid and lustrous within; dehiscence very tardy, the pod long-persistent on branches, falling unopened, the seeds apparently released only by weathering; funicle filiform; seeds of well-fertilized fruits 20-26, transverse, broadside up, at middle of valves, in broad outline elliptic 3.6-4.2 x 1.6-1.9 mm, the testa firm smooth, pale tan but a little darker within the narrowly inverse-U-shaped pleurogram; a pallid lens distal to the funicle-attachment.

A species of debatable aboriginal range, but seemingly native in moist upland tropical forest, mostly between 700 and 1800 m, in centr. and N Colombia, E Panama (Darién), and the eastern cordillera in Venezuela (Trujillo and Mérida), within this range also preserved and planted for coffee-shade and as an ornamental shade tree; introduced in cafetales and occasionally wild in the lowlands of Central America (Costa Rica; El Salvador), the Greater Antilles (Cuba; Dominican Republic; Puerto Rico), centr. Peru, and SE Brazil (São Paulo). — Map 58A, B. — Fl. primarily V-XII but intermittently throughout the year, the ripe frs. often coeval with new fls. — Carbonero, muche, piñón, pisquín (Colombian).

Among related albizias with multifoliolate leaves, A. carbonaria is notable for the dorsally pallid leaflets, the dense golden indumentum of the inflorescence, the distinctly pediceled flowers, and the papery tomentulose pod. Its rapid growth and open crown recommend it as a shade tree in cafetales, where it has been planted far outside its native range.