Zygia englesingii (Standl. ex Record) Record

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1997. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: A generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part II. , , and . Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-149.

  • Family

    Mimosaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Zygia englesingii (Standl. ex Record) Record

  • Type

    "Nicaragua: Region of Bragman’s Bluff [= Puerto Cabezas], 1928, F. C. Englesing 205." — Holotypus, F 579732!; isotypi, NY (fragm.)!, Y 13297. — Pithecellobium englesingsii (Record) Standley, Trop. Woods 34: 40. 1933.

  • Synonyms

    Inga englesingii Standl. ex Record

  • Description

    Species Description - Very amply, coarsely macrophyllous trees ±6-9 m, hardly distinguishable when sterile or in flower from Z. stevensonii or Z. rhytidocarpa, but seemingly different in the (seldom collected) broad, planocompressed, thinly puberulent fruit, glabrous except for sometimes minutely pilosulous lf-axes and more or less strigulose inflorescence, the loose capitula or short spikes of fragrant, white or pinkish either white- or pink-stamened fls shortly pedunculate from knots on trunk and on lately defoliate branches. Stipules (few seen) lanceolate or lance-acuminate 5-7(-?) mm, early dry deciduous. Lf-formula i/3½-4½; lf- stks 4-24 x 2-4.5 mm; petiolar nectary sessile ±3(-?) mm diam; rachis of pinnae 1.5-5 dm, the longer interfoliolar segments (3.5-)5-10.5 cm; lft-pulvinules 3-6.5 mm; lfts accrescent distally, the blades broadly elliptic to ovate- or obovate-elliptic from inequilaterally narrow-cuneate base, shortly acuminate, the distal ones 17-38(-"40") x 6—12(—14) cm, 2.8-3.8 times as long as wide: venation as in Z. stevensonii, the major incurved secondary nerves 6-8 from each side of subcentric midrib. Units of inflorescence 7-12-fld, the peduncle ±4-8 mm, the floral axis 5-12 mm; bracts ovate, scarcely 1 mm, persistent; perianth (4-) 5-merous, either glabrous except for tip of corolla-lobes or finely strigulose overall; calyx campanulate 2-4 x 1.1-2 mm, the teeth (or some of them) either ovate to 0.4 mm or subobsolete; corolla tubular, barely dilated distally, 8.5-12.5 mm, the lobes ±2 mm; androecium 22-25 mm, 50—60-merous, the tube 11-14 mm, as long as corolla or shortly exserted, the tassel either white (with pink anthers) or pink; intrastaminal disc ±0.5 mm; ovary subsessile, glabrous. Pod (Grayum 4336, not quite ripe) in profile narrowly oblong 12 x 4 cm, planocompressed, margined by sutures ±5 mm wide in dorsal view, the dark brown ligneous valves obscurely cross-ribbed, under magnification papillate and minutely strigulose; dehiscence and seeds unknown.

    Distribution and Ecology - In wet woodland, from near sea level to 1500 m, best known from the Caribbean slope of the Cordillera Central in Costa Rica, extending E along rivers to the coast, there extending N in Nicaragua to Puerto Cabezas and S just into Panama (Bocas del Toro). — Map 30. — Fl. III-VII(-?).

  • Distribution

    Bocas del Toro Panamá Central America| Costa Rica South America| Nicaragua Central America|