Zygia selloi (Benth.) L.Rico

  • 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 selloi (Benth.) L.Rico

  • Type

    "Brasil, Selloi — Holotypus, K!; isotypi, Sello 6005/941, †B = F Neg. 1218!, Sello s.n. UC!. — Feuilleea selloi (Bentham) O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 189. 1891.

  • Synonyms

    Feuilleea selloi (Spreng.) Kuntze

  • Description

    Species Description - Macrophyllous arborescent shrub or tree ("arvore grande") of unknown stature, glabrous throughout, with smooth terete branches, stiffly papery bicolored lfts, and spikes of relatively large fls arising in small fascicles from knots on defoliate branches. Stipules ovate 1-1.5 mm, caducous. Lf-formula 1/2½, each pinna (4-)5-foliolate; lf-stks including fuscous pulvinus 5-8 x 1.3-2.5 mm; nectary at top of lf-stks plane ±1.5-2 mm diam; rachis of longer pinnae 5-11 cm, the further interfoliolar segment (2-)2.5-5.5 cm; lft-pulvinules 2.5-4 mm; lfts distally accrescent, the blades elliptic or broad-elliptic from inequilaterally cuneate base, shortly acuminate, the larger ones ±8.5—14(—15.5) x 3.5-6.5 cm, 2.2-3 times as long as wide; venation finely prominulous only on dorsal face, the subcentric, gently incurved midrib giving rise on each side to 5-7 major incurved-ascending secondary nerves, the tertiary venulation weak and open. Peduncles ±1-3 cm; spikes ±10-40-fld, the floral axis attaining 1.3-9 cm; bracts minute persistent; perianth glabrous, pink; calyx campanulate, sometimes deeply so, 1.8-5.8 mm, teeth often unequal, ovate or depressed-deltate 0.2-1 mm; corolla 11-14 mm, the ovate or lanceolate lobes 1.6-3 mm; androecium ±54-merous (one count), 13-21 mm, the stemonozone ±0.7 mm, the tassel of unknown color, the intrastaminal disc ±0.8 mm; ovary at anthesis glabrous. Pods not seen, described by Bentham (1875) as shortly stipitate, ±15 x 2.5 cm, the coriaceous valves minutely puberulent.

    Distribution and Ecology - In unrecorded habitat but to be expected along streams in woodland, collected first by Sello at a locality not recorded, in late 1826 by Burchell near Santos, state of São Paulo, in 1931 by A. Gehrt (no. 28064) on Ilha Sto Amaro, São Paulo, and in 1950, by A. B. Joly (no. 1215), again in São Paulo near Vila Atlântica, to be sought in remnant Atlantic Forest elsewhere in Sao Paulo and perhaps Paraná. — Not mapped. — Fl. XII, V.

    Relationships - Zygia selloi has much in common with Z. longifolia, but has notably larger flowers and a remotely disjunct range. The type of P. sanguineum differs from that of Z. selloi in a deeply campanulate calyx (to ±5.5, not 2-2.5 mm long) but is not otherwise different, so far as known. The epithet sanguineum refers to the color of the flush leaves, not to the corolla.

  • Distribution

    São Paulo Brazil South America| Paraná Brazil South America|