Chamaecrista caribaea var. lucayana

  • Title

    Chamaecrista caribaea var. lucayana

  • Authors

    Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Chamaecrista caribaea var. lucayana (Britton) H.S.Irwin & Barneby

  • Description

    10b. Chamaecrista caribaea (Northrop) Britton var. lucayana (Britton) Irwin & Barneby, stat. nov. Cassia lucayana Britton, Bull. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 4: 138. 1906.—"Cay north of Wide Opening, Exuma Chain (Britton & Millspaugh 2774 . . .)."—Holotypus, collected 18.II.1905 (fr), NY! isotypus, US! paratypi, Britton & Millspaugh 2841, 3041, NY!—Chamaecrista lucayana (Britton) Britton in Bull. Torr. Club 44: 8. 1917.

    Chamaecrista lucayana sensu Britton & Rose, 1930, p. 282.

    Minutely strigulose as var. caribaea or sometimes in addition pilosulous with spreading-ascending hairs up to 0.5—1(—1.4) mm, or (Grand Bahama) the branchlets and lf-stalks glabrate; major lvs (4-)4.5-8 cm, the lfts 5-10 pairs, broadly lance- to ovate- or oblong-elliptic, rarely obovate-emarginate; gland (below) middle of petiole usually tack- or trumpet-shaped, but the stipe sometimes coarsely dilated and then squatly drum-shaped or obconic, in profile (0.5-)0.6-1.3 x (0.6—)0.7—1.4(—1.5) mm, (0.7-)0.4 mm shorter to 0.3 mm longer than diam of head; pod 43-60 x 5-6.5 mm.—Collections: 9.

    Habitats of var. caribaea, of apparently bicentric dispersal in n. and centr. Bahamas: Grand Bahama (±26°40'N); Exuma Chain, Cat and Conception Is., Rum Cay (23°20'-24°30'N).—Fl. XI—II, VII, perhaps at intervals through the year.

    The var. lucayana is variable in pubescence, the disjunct populations on Grand Bahama being nearly glabrous, those in the central Bahamas either strigulose or pilose. Variation in the petiolar gland, as described, appears quite random and without taxonomic significance. On Cat Island, the only island where two varieties of Ch. caribaea are known to occur, var. lucayana is sharply distinct from sympatric var. caribaea.

    The epithet lucayana refers to the long-extinct tribe of Arawak Indians found living on the Bahamas by the first European visitors.