Tabebuia microphylla (Lam.) Urb.
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Authority
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bignoniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Haiti. Type Illustration: Plumier, Pl. Amer. t. 55, f. 2. 1756.
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Synonyms
Bignonia microphylla Lam., Tecoma microphylla (Lam.) Urb., Tabebuia ostenfeldii Urb., Tabebuia truncata Urb., Tabebuia libanensis Urb.
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Description
Species Description - Shrub or small microphyllus tree 1-6 m tall, usually densely branched; branchlets slender or with the leaves clustered at tips of short-shoots. Leaves simple, broadly obovate to orbicular, rounded or obtuse at apex, more or less rounded at base, 0.2-1.4 cm long, 0.2-0.7 cm wide, coriaceous, very densely lepidote above and below, the lower surface grayish or whitish, petioles less than 1 mm long. Inflorescences of one or two flowers usually at the apex of a short shoot, pedicels ca. 5 mm long, densely lepidote. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, irregularly shortly bilabiate, very densely grayish lepidote, 5-7 mm long, 4-6 mm wide; corolla light magenta, tubular-infundibuliform, 2.5-3.5 cm long, the tube 2-3 cm long, 0.6-1 cm wide at mouth of tube, the lobes ca. 0.5 cm across, glabrous outside, the lobes ciliate, the tube pilose basally within and at level of stamen insertion; stamens didynamous; pistil ca. 1.8 cm long, the ovary linear, 3 mm long, 0.8 mm wide, densely lepidote; disc annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 1.5 mm wide. Fruit linear-cylindric, (2-)2.5-8 cm long, 0.4-0.5 cm wide, lepidote, subtended by persistent calyx; seeds thin, bialate, 2-4 mm long, 10-12 mm wide, the hyaline membranaceous wings sharply demarcated from the seed body.
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Discussion
Two species have been generally recognized on Hispaniola, the more densely branching specimens being referred to T. ostenfeldii, but these differences are surely ecotypic and even topo-typic material of T. ostenfeldii (e.g., Howard 12509) shows the more open branching of extreme T. microphylla. Urban himself referred all microphyllous Hispaniolan collections to T. ostenfeldii, but the Plumier figure is unmistakably this plant on account of its broad leaves with rounded apices. Apparently a second microphyllous species on Hispaniola can be distinguished by its longer, apically pointed leaves. On Cuba, variation in the microphyllous Tabebuia species is more complex. At least ten taxa have been described. Of these, two — T. Obanensis and T. truncata—are surely referable to T. microphylla on account of their short broadly ovate blunt-tipped leaves. The type and, only known collection of T. truncata differs from other collections in having the leaves less densely lepidote beneath.
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Objects
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Distribution
Hispaniola and eastern Cuba (Oriente and adjacent Camagüey); dry sclerophyllous vegetation, especially on dogtooth limestone and along the coast; 0-350 m.
Cuba South America| Camagüey Cuba South America| Granma Cuba South America| Guantánamo Cuba South America| Holguín Cuba South America| Las Tunas Cuba South America| Haiti South America| Dominican Republic South America| Barahona Dominican Republic South America| Pedernales Dominican Republic South America|