Sphinga platyloba (Bertero ex DC.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. & Grimes, James W. 1996. Silk tree, guanacaste, monkey's earring: a generic system for the synandrous Mimosaceae of the Americas. Part I. Abarema, Albizia, and allies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74: 1-292.
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Family
Mimosaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"ad Sanctam- Martham (Bertero)." — Holotypus, G-DC! = F Neg. 28268.
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Synonyms
Havardia leiocalyx (Standl.) Britton & Rose
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Description
Species Description - Stiffly branched arborescent shrubs of open, semideciduous scrub-woodland, at anthesis (1—)2—7 m, and in closed woodland becoming sarmentose or lianoid, in either case armed at nodes of long-shoots with stout, usually recurved, lignified and vulnerant stipules, the annotinous stems fuscous, pallid-lenticellate, the young stems and lvs glabrous to pilosulous overall with fine white hairs to 0.15-0.3 mm, the lvs bicolored, the firm plane lfts dull olivaceous (sometimes pruinose) above, pallid beneath, the loose capitula of long white vespertine fls arising mostly from short- shoots axillary to an annotinous (or fallen) lf, rarely solitary in random coeval lf-axils, the corolla notably white-silky throughout or distally. Stipules triangular-subulate 0.5-5 mm, at first ascending, those subtending primary lvs of long-shoots mostly >1.5 mm, early lignified and slightly to strongly recurved, persistent on defoliate stems, those of short-shoots mostly <1.5 mm, remaining erect, not or scarcely indurate. Lf- formula (i—)ii—iii(—iv)/(l—)2—5; lf-stk of primary lvs (1.5-)2-7.5(-9) cm (of some fasciculate lvs, no further described, shorter) the petiole (l-)1.3^.3(-6) cm, at middle (0.35—)0.4—1.1 mm diam, the first (or only) interpinnal segment 5—14(—18) mm; nectary below midpetiole elliptic patelliform thick-rimmed, in long diameter 0.9-3.4 mm, in profile 0.15-0.45 mm tall, no nectary between pinnae but a small one on furthest segment of pinna-rachises; pinnae scarcely or decidedly accrescent distally, the rachis of longer ones (0.6-) 1.2-5 cm, the one or the longer interfoliolar segment 4-12(-15) mm; lft-pulvinules 0.4-1 (-1.1) x 0.35-0.6 mm; lfts often much, sometimes scarcely accrescent distally, in outline oblong-elliptic or -oblanceolate to broadly obovate from inequilaterally rounded to broad-cuneate, seldom shallowly semicordate base, broadly obtuse but often minutely apiculate, the penultimate pair 11-30 x (4-)5-15 mm, (1.5-) 1.6-2.4 times as long as wide, the furthest pair either as big or bigger and proportionately wider; venation pinnate, the straight or scarcely incurved midrib either centric or displaced to divide blade 1:1.5, giving rise on each side to 4—6 slender secondary nerves brochidodrome well within the sometimes cartilaginous margin, a weak random tertiary venulation sometimes developed, the whole venation immersed (often pallidly discolored) on upper face, delicately prominulous beneath. Peduncles solitary and 2-3-nate 2-4(-4.4) cm, lignescent in fruit; capitula 7—15-fld, the subsessile fls ascending, the receptacle 1.5—5(—6) mm; bracts linear-lanceolate or narrowly ovate 0.6-3 mm, rather tardily deciduous; fls homomorphic; pedicels when present stout, not over 1 mm, as long as or longer than broad; fl-buds narrowly flask-shaped acute; perianth basically 5-merous but some lobes either of calyx or corolla often fused, then appearing (2-)3-4-merous, or the corolla randomly 5- merous, the calyx glabrous or remotely pilosulous distally, the exserted part of corolla or at very least its lobes densely white-silky-pilose; calyx cylindric, striately nerved (5.4-)6-10 x (1.2—)1.5—2 mm, the triangular or lanceolate acute teeth unequal, the sinuses 0.8-4.5 mm deep, one of them often much deeper than the rest, the calyx then appearing spathiform; corolla narrowly trumpet-shaped (11.5—)13—17.5 mm, the ovate or lanceolate, apically hooded lobes 2.5-6 x 1.2-3.2 mm; androecium 34-82-merous, 4-6.7 cm, the far-exserted tube 20-28 x 0.9-1.7 mm, the stemonozone 1.2-2.7 mm; disc 0.6-1.5 x 0.6-1.3 mm, clasping the short stipe of the ovary, this glabrous at anthesis, shallowly sulcate laterally, gradually tapering into the exserted style; stigma poriform. Pods solitary, broad-linear, straight or almost so, cuneately contracted at base into a pseudostipe 3-16 mm and at apex broadly rounded and cuspidate, when well fertilized 11—18(—20) x 2.1-3.1 (-3.6) cm, 6-9(-10)-seeded, the stiffly papery, brown or fuscous, glabrous valves framed by dorsally plane or low-carinate (but not winged) sutures ±1.2-2.4 mm wide, low-convex over each seed, finely transverse-venulose, internally pallid, smooth but not lustrous, the cavity continuous; seeds transverse, basifixed on contorted, strongly compressed funicle, lentiform, in broad view either round or broad-elliptic 9.5-14 mm diam, strongly compressed and 1.5-3.5 mm thick, the leathery, lustrously castaneous testa loosely investing the pallid embryo, girdled around the periphery with a thickened rim ±0.5-0.7 mm wide, the finely engraved pleurogram incomplete, (6-)6.5-10 mm long.
Distribution and Ecology - In drought-deciduous or semideciduous, primary and disturbed forest or scrub-woodland, mostly between sea level and 300 m, but locally in Chiapas, Mexico, at 700-1100 m, discontinuously dispersed in S Mexico and NE Guatemala, and in far NW South America: known in Mexico from coastal hill-country in S Jalisco, from the Pacific lowlands of Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, from the upper Mexcalapa basin in Chiapas, and from the Yucatán Peninsula, whence S shortly into Petén, Guatemala; in South America localized on the lower foothills of Sa de Sta Marta in Magdalena, Colombia, the Paraguaná peninsula in Falcón, Venezuela, and the adjacent island of Aruba in Dutch West Indies. — Map 43. — Fl. in Mexico and Guatemala III—VII, IX, in South America II—IV, VIII-X.
Local Names and Uses - Dabaruida, uña de gaber (Aruba).
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Discussion
Sphinga platyloba is variable in four respects: habit of growth, leaf-formula, pubescence, and number of stamens. These variable features are, however, poorly correlated and only partially coincide with discontinuities in dispersal. In Caribbean South America, whence came the typus, the plants are free-standing, arborescent shrubs, nearly glabrous, with few and relatively ample leaflets (not more than 3 pairs, the largest at least 18 mm long), and stamens about 55-80 in number. In lowland Yucatán the habit and vesture are essentially as in Venezuela and Colombia, but the stamens are fewer, about 35-45 per androecium. In Oaxaca the plant is reportedly either shrubby or sarmentose, the leaflets are smaller and more numerous (3-7 pairs in distal pinnae and the largest seldom attaining 2 cm in length) and vary moreover from glabrous except for a basal tuft of hairs dorsally to randomly pilosulous on both faces, and the androecium is about 60-77-merous. The seemingly isolated populations in coastal Jalisco hardly differ from those in Oaxaca. In upland Chiapas, S. platyloba is described in field notes by Breedlove as either a tree, a vine, or a sprawling shrub. Here the leaflets are relatively small and not less than four pairs in distal pinnae, and commonly are pubescent to some degree, although sometimes glabrate, while random samples of androecia ranged from 40 to 67. Although differential evolution seems to be proceeding in these segments of the species’ range, there is not yet the sort of disparity between them that justifies taxonomic segregation.
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Common Names
Dabaruida, uña de gaber
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Distribution
Chiapas Mexico North America| Petén Guatemala Central America| Jalisco Mexico North America| Oaxaca Mexico North America| Quintana Roo Mexico North America| Campeche Mexico North America| Magdalena Colombia South America| Falcón Venezuela South America| Aruba South America|