Albizia inundata

  • Title

    Albizia inundata

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Albizia inundata (Mart.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes

  • Description

    19. Albizia inundata (Martius) Barneby & Grimes, comb. nov. Acacia inundata Martius in Spix & Martius, Reise Bras. 1: 555. 1823. — ". . . im Alagadisso [a tract of seasonally inundated riparian forest along Río São Francisco in N Minas Gerais, Brazil]." — Holotypus, labeled "in virgultis ad fl. S. Francisco prope Salgado . . . Aug.[1818]" flor., M! = NY Neg. 12583.

    Enterolobium polycephalum Grisebach, Symb. Fl. Argent. 123. 1879. — "Ofran]: Gr. [= Gran] Chaco, in palmetis pr. Laguna del Palmar." — Typus (Burkart, Darwiniana 9: 69. 1949), Lorentz & Hieronymus 572, coll. Aug. 1873 (fl.); holotypus, GOET (not seen); isotypi, CORD (fide Burkart, l. c.), NY!, S!. — Feuilleea polycephala (Grisebach) O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 188. 1891. Arthrosamanea polycephala (Grisebach) Burkart, Darwiniana 9: 69. 1949. Cathormion polycephalum Burkart, Darwiniana 13: 448. 1964. — Non Albizia polycephala Killip, 1940. Pithecolobium pendulum Lindman, Bih. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. Handl. 24, Afd. III(7): 54, fig. 14. 1898.—"Paraguay: El Chaco, in ripis amnium nunc silvaticis (Río Pilcomayo), nunc apertis (Río Negro) copiose (A[nisits] 2005)." — Holotypus, S (not seen). — Described from sterile material; equated with Arthrosamanea polyantha by Burkart, Darwiniana 9: 66. 1949.

    Pithecolobium multiflorum var. brevipedunculata [sic] Chodat & Hassler, Bull. Herb. Boissier, ser. 2, 4: 483. 1904. — "[Paraguay] ... in humidis insulae Chaco-y pr. Concepcion. Aug., [Hassler] no. 7217." — Holotypus, G (not seen); isotypi, NY!, P!, UC 940803!, 950950! US!. Pithecolobium multiflorum sensu Bentham, 1875; 591 & 1876: 445, ex parte, the mixture astutely analyzed by Burkart, Darwiniana 9: 69, 1949.

    Arthrosamanea polyantha [sic] sensu Burkart, Darwiniana 9: 66. 1949, exclus. basionymo Acacia polyanthes K. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 5: 3. 1826, substituto pro A. multiflora K. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 3: 142. 1828, homonymo posteriori ac nom. dub. (typo perdito); non Acacia multiflora Kunth in Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, 1824. — Cathormion polyanthum [jzc] Burkart, Darwiniana 13: 447. 1964. Albizia polyantha G. P. Lewis, Leg. Bahia 164.1987. Arthrosamanea polyantha sensu Burkart, Las Leguminosas Argentinas 2daed., 108, fig. 11. 1952. Cathormion polyanthum sensu Burkart, Fl. Ilustr. Sta. Catarina, Legum. Mimos. 91. 1979; Fl. Ilustr. Entre Ríos 3: 467, fig. 205. 1987; sensu Bemardi, 1984: 179, fig. 45; sensu Hoc, 1992b: 260, sequ.

    Trees 3—12(—14) m with trunk attaining ±3 dm dbh, or sometimes (see discussion below of Enterolobium polycephalum Grisebach) a bushy treelet fertile at 1-3 m and propagating by suckers, the young branches strongly ribbed and sulcate, buttressed at each node, becoming vertically striped in second season, the new growth except for gray-puberulent axes of inflorescence glabrous or only minutely or thinly puberulent on ventral margins of lf-stk and pinna-rachis, the bicolored lfts glabrous facially except sometimes for a few hairs in proximal basal angle of midrib or along its proximal half, on upper face green or dark brownish green and moderately to highly lustrous, paler dull, sometimes glaucescent but only rarely pallid-papillate beneath, the narrow, simple or feebly branched, efoliate pseudoracemes of small greenish white capitula arising singly or paired in coeval lf-axils, the furthest often appearing terminal, all shorter than the subtending lf. Stipules papery, triangular or ovate ±1-1.5 mm, nerveless or faintly 3-nerved, early caducous, absent from fruiting spms. Lf-formula ii—iv/(8—)9—14(fide Burkart -17); lf-stks 6-15 cm, the petiole including wrinkled pulvinus 3-6.5(-8) cm, at middle 0.9-1.5 mm diam, the one or the longest interpinnal segment 1.8-3.2(-3.5) cm, the ventral groove continuous between pinnae; a sessile, shallow-cupular, almost round or vertically elliptic, brown glabrous nectary normally 0.8-2.1 x 0.8-2.1 mm close to or somewhat below midpetiole, exceptionally vestigial, a smaller one rarely just below first pinna-pair, and yet smaller ones at tip of lf-stk and each pinna; pinnae of nearly equal length or the first and last a little shorter, the rachis of longer ones 5.5-9.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (4—)5—10 mm; pulvinules 0.6-1.4 x 0.5-0.9 mm; lfts a little decrescent at each end of rachis, the firm, when dry ventrally convex blade narrowly oblong or more commonly lanceolate from inequilaterally rounded base, acutely triangular or acutely deltate and almost always falcately porrect at very apex, the longer ones (15-) 16-28 x (3.5-)4-9 mm, (2.7-) 3.1-4(-5) times as long as wide; venation of 5-7 primary nerves from pulvinule, the midrib forwardly displaced to divide blade ±1:2-4, straight proximally, near apex falcately porrect, the inner posterior nerve incurved-ascending almost to blade’s apex, the outer posterior ones progressively shorter, the anterior ones(s) weak and short, the primary nerves giving rise to few random, narrowly ascending connecting venules, the whole venation finely but sharply prominulous beneath, less so above. Primary axis of inflorescence 3-14 cm, that of rare secondary branchlets <2 cm; peduncles at most nodes 2-5, the longest of each fascicle (2-)3-8 mm; capitula 4— 16-fld, without filaments ±5-6.5 mm diam, the axis including a sometimes differentiated terminal pedestal 1 mm or less, the fls sessile or almost so, of nearly the same length but the terminal one (sometimes abortive) a little broader and with slightly more numerous stamens; bracts deltate-ovate 0.3-0.5 mm, deciduous; perianth 5-merous greenish, glabrous except for microscopically ciliolate calyx-teeth; calyx campanulate or turbinate-campanulate 0.85—1 mm and about as wide, the depressed-deltate teeth 0.15-0.3 mm; corolla 2.6-3.3(3.5) mm, the ovate lobes ±1.3 mm; filaments of peripheral fls 22-46 (of some terminal fls to 64), when straightened out 6-7 mm, the stemonozone ±0.5 mm, the tube 1.1-1.7 mm; ovary glabrous, conical at apex; style slightly surpassing the longer stamens, scarcely dilated at apex. Pods (cryptoloments) one or exceptionally 2 per capitulum, either sessile or more often contracted at base into a laterally grooved pseudostipe 1.5-8 mm, in profile broad-linear, straight or gently arched downward, abruptly apiculate by the style-base, when well-fertilized (9-) 11-18 x 0.9-1.4 cm, (8-)l 1-18-seeded, the stiffly papery, piano- compressed, dull brown or livid-brown, coarsely venulose, glabrous valves framed by obtuse, straight or shallowly undulate (only where ovules abort more deeply constricted) sutures 1-1.5 mm wide, when ripe shallowly transversely sulcate between seeds, finally separating into continuous exocarp and pale buff endocarp, this permanently clothing the seeds and disjointing between them; dehiscence through both sutures, the exocarp narrowly gaping to emit the seeds, these each wrapped in a square, rhombic, or rhombic-oblong envelope; seeds oblong or elliptic in broad view, ±5.5-7 x 4.2-5.2 mm, the smooth sublus- trous testa fawn or putty-colored, ±0.2 mm thick, closely investing the embryo, the inversely rounded or elliptic, U-shaped pleurogram 2.5-3 mm diam.

    In riparian woodland and seasonally flooded varzea forest, on river-islands and in low-lying palm savanna, 5-450 m, locally common or even dominant, frequent in the Paraná-Paraguai-Uruguai basin northward from ±33°S in Río Negro, Uruguay, and in Corrientes and adjacent Buenos Aires in Argentina to the Pantanal in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and the headwaters of Río Beni in Bolivia, NW in Argentina to Salta (Oran) and Jujuy (Schuel 103, W); disjunct in E Brazil along and near Río São Francisco in extreme N Minas Gerais and interior Bahia, and in the upper Tocantins valley in the same latitude in Goiás, in S Piauí and Ceará; and reappearing in Pará, Brazil, on the Amazon and immediate tributaries downstream from mouth of Río Trombetas and on the lower Río Tocantins. — Map 61. — Fl. VII-XII. Maloxo, palo-flojo, timbó-atá, timbó bianco.

    While fully endorsing Burkart’s definition of this species, we disagree with his proposed nomenclature. Acacia multiflora K. Sprengel was described from a Sello specimen, now lost, in a phrase of only 14 words and in terms so generalized that its identity, in absence of a type, is essentially unknowable. Bentham (1875: 591) thought it "very probable" that Sprengel’s name might be equated with A. multiflora Kunth, but Bentham took an extremely broad and now indefensible view of the latter species. Burkart promoted Bentham’s probability into virtual certainty, adding that the species might be recognized, in the context of Sello’s itineraries, by the falcate leaflets. There is nothing in the diagnosis, however, to show that the type actually came from southern Brazil (though this is probable) and not a word on structure of the androecium that might exclude A. multiflora Sprengel from the genus Acacia as now constituted, or from other genera of Mimosoideae. If it were indeed an Albizia or a Pithecellobium, it might as well, from the scant morphological and geographic data in the protologue, be applicable to Albizia edwallii, found commonly on Sello’s route through Paraná and Santa Catarina. We consider A. multiflora Sprengel a nomen dubium. Furthermore, it has not been noticed that when Sprengel substituted for his posterior multiflora a new epithet, this was spelled polyanthes (in accusative case polyanthen, not polyantham). When transferred by Burkart to Arthrosamanea the epithet should have been A. polyanthes. The spelling and use of this combination are, however, of no more than academic interest now that a yet earlier name for the taxon involved has been found.

    It is not without misgiving that we here reduce Enterolobium polycephalum Grisebach to synonymy of A. inundata. Burkart regarded them, first in genus Arthrosamanea and later in genus Cathormion, as closely related species distinguished by habit of growth, length of pseudoracemes (vaguely precised), chromosome-number, and (indecisively) stamen- number. When the stamens fall within the range of 32 numbers often encountered in peripheral flowers of the capitulum, and no data on habit or chromosomes are available, the two taxa are practically indistinguishable. The dwarf, stooling form described as polycephala by Burkart may be distinctive in the field, but we can find nothing by which to recognize it in the herbarium. The polyploidy (2n = 52) ascribed to A. inundata by Burkart (1952: 108, sub A. polycephala) requires testing not only in Argentina but in the disjunct populations in the São Francisco and Amazon basins in Brazil. Compare Hoc, 1992b: 260, sequ.