Zygia lehmannii (Harms) Britton & Rose

  • 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 lehmannii (Harms) Britton & Rose

  • Type

    "[Colombia.] ... am Rio Cofre auf dem Hochland von Popayan, 1700-2100 m. (F. C. Lehmann no. 8989)." — Holotypus, †B = F Neg. 1205!; isotypi, K!, NY!.

  • Synonyms

    Zygia cuspidata Killip ex L.Rico

  • Description

    Species Description - Amply foliate, cauliflorous trees ±6(-?) m, the young branches, all lf-axes and the major veins of hy- pophyllum of lfts pilosulous with erect brownish hairs to ±0.6 mm, the foliage bicolored, the thin-textured lfts when dry dark brown but pallid-veined above, paler brown beneath, the dense racemes of relatively large (reportedly scarlet) fls shortly pedunculate, arising solitary from knots on trunk and branches. Stipules lanceolate 2-10 mm, dorsally pilosulous like stem, forming a loose perule at tip of homotinous stems, but those subtending developed lvs early caducous. Lf-formula i/4½-6½ the lfts 9-13 per pinna; lf-stks 1.8-3 cm, charged at apex with a subsessile, shallowly cupular nectary ±1 mm diam; rachis of pinnae 10-15 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments ±2-3 cm; lft-pulvinules in dorsal view ±2 mm, but the lfts appearing subsessile in ventral view; lfts proximally decrescent, subequilaterally lance-elliptic from shallowly semicordate base, slenderly acuminate or caudate, the longer ones 7-22 x 1.6-7 cm, 2.9-4.3 times as long as wide; venation asymmetrically pinnate, the nearly straight and centric midrib giving rise on posterior side to ±5-6 and on anterior side to as many as 9 major secondary nerves weakly brochidodrome close within the plane margin, the first 1-3 secondaries on posterior side longer and stronger than the rest, the connecting tertiary and reticular venules faint. Peduncles 8-25 mm, sometimes imbricately bracteate at base; raceme-axis stout, 25-40 x 3 mm, the fls subcontiguous; bracts linear-subulate ±1.5 mm, either persistent or decidous; pedicels (l-)2-4 mm; perianth minutely puberulent, either overall or only on corolla-lobes, nowhere striately nerved; calyx hemispherical or shallowly campanulate 1.6-2.5 x 1.8-3 mm, the deltate teeth ±0.15 mm; corolla subtubular 15.5-20 mm, at orifice 3.5-6 mm diam, the erect, lanceolate or ovate-triangular lobes 3.3-5 x 2.5-3 mm; androecium 60-120-merous, ±4—5 cm, the tube 2-7 mm; intrastaminal nectary ±1 mm tall; ovary at anthesis glabrous, sessile, obliquely conic at tip; stigma 0.25 mm diam. Pods unknown.

    Distribution and Ecology - In moist montane woodland at 1700-2800 m, local between 1°N and 3°30'N in the Andes of Colombia: on left affluents of Río Cauca between Popayán and Cali (depts. Cauca and Valle); and on the E slope of Cordillera Oriental above Mocoa (dept. Putumayo). —Not mapped. — Fl. II-V(-?).

  • Common Names

    Guasca de pomo

  • Distribution

    Cauca Colombia South America| Valle Colombia South America| Putumayo Colombia South America|