Abarema asplenifolia (Griseb.) 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
"Cuba occ. (W[right] 2403)." — Holotypus, to be sought at GOET; isotypi, G!, GH!, K!, P! labeled "Pinal, Mayarí Abajo, Cuba orientalis 6 aug" (fl & fr jun), MO!, NY!, US (fragm. ex herb, urban.)!
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Synonyms
Pithecellobium asplenifolium subsp. mayarense Borhidi
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Description
Species Description - Arborescent shrubs of unknown maximum stature, the young growth densely minutely brown-puberulent, the alternate or subopposite, multifoliolate lvs bicolored, the firmly papery, ventrally convex lfts dark lustrous green (when dry, brown) and glabrous above, beneath densely microscopically pallid-papillate and either glabrous or minutely remotely strigulose (especially along midrib, and sometimes incipiently barbellate in the anterior basal angle), the short racemes of long-pedicellate fls solitary in the axil of few coeval lvs, immersed in foliage. Stipules 0 (no scars). Lf-formula (ii—)iii—vi/9—12; longer lf-stks 5-7.5 cm, the petiole and the longer interpinnal segments each 1-2 cm; petiolar nectaries sessile, shallowly cupular thick-rimmed 0.7-1.4 mm diam, situated between pinnae of first pair, all pairs, or only the distal pair of pinnae, much smaller ones between few furthest pairs of lfts; pinnae decrescent proximally, the rachis of furthest and penultimate pairs 4.5-7 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments 5-7 mm; lft-pulvinules in dorsal view 0.7-1.2 x 0.6-0.7 mm; lfts gradually accrescent distally but except for proportionately wider distal pair subequiform, in outline obliquely oblong- or oblance-elliptic from inequilaterally cuneate base, broadly rounded muticous at apex, the longer ones (11)12-18 x 5-8 (-"10," Borhidi) mm, 1.7-2.6 times as long as wide; the subcentric midrib gently retro-arcuate near base, straight thereafter, giving rise to ±5-8 pairs of secondary nerves brochidodrome within the revolute margin, the tertiary venulation weak and random, the whole venation immersed or impressed on upper face of blade, prominulous on lower. Peduncles 4.5-10 cm; racemes ±17-24-fld, the almost homomorphic fls either scattered or subverticellate, the axis becoming 5-11 mm; bracts minute caducous; lower pedicels subhorizontal and distally incurved 5.5-11 x 0.4-0.5 mm, the further ones progressively shorter, that of furthest only slightly larger but not otherwise modified fls 1.5-3 mm; LOWER AND MEDIAN FLS: perianth 5-merous, either sordid-puberulent overall or the calyx-tube glabrate; calyx turbinate-campanulate ±4-5 x 1.2-1.8 mm; corolla turbinate-campanulate ±7.5-9 x 1.5-2.2 mm, the erect or gently arcuate lobes externally brown-puberulent; androecium 40-58-merous, to 2.6-3.0 cm, the stemonozone 1-1.6 mm, the tube 3-6 mm; ovary truncate, densely puberulent. Pods (little known) like that of Abarema glauca, 8-10-seeded, the valves 7-8 mm wide at seeds, constricted between them; seeds 5.3 x 3.5 mm, pleurogram 2.6 x 1.3 mm.
Distribution and Ecology - In montane woodland and coastal scrub thickets, apparently endemic to NE prov. Oriente, Cuba: attaining 800 m on Sa. de Nipe and Sa. del Cristal, and on low hills and cayos of the N coast between Pta Cabanas and Pta Gorda. — Fl. V-VIII(-?).
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Discussion
In foliage characters A. asplenifolia is intermediate between the microphyll species A. oppositifolia, A. nipenesis, and A. asplenifolia and the macrophyll ones A. glauca and A. obovalis; for measurements and numbers of leaflets see our key to West Indian Abarema (p. 45). The subspecies mayarense, which we confidently reduce to synonomy, was supposed to differ from typical asplenifolia in elliptic-obovate leaflets 10-18 x 5-10 mm, lustrous and bullescent on upper face, concave and densely appressed-pilose beneath, and in leaf-rachis 4-8 (not 2.5-5.5) cm long; and it was thought to be geographically disjunct from the west-Cuban var. asplenifolia. The supposed differences in leaflets are not borne out by the material that we have seen and are not all expressed in the isotype of subsp. mayarense at NY. It is true that Grisebach described P. asplenifolium from "Cuba occ[identalis]", but this was a mistake; the isotype (Wright 2403) at GH is labeled "Mayari Abajo," and no doubt was collected in Oriente Province, as are all modern specimens, and close to the type-locality of subsp. mayarense.
From its dispersal so far as exactly known it is likely that A. asplenifolia is confined to serpentine soils, although the substrate is seldom specifically recorded by collectors.
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Distribution
Cuba South America|