Abarema obovata (Benth.) 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
"Brazil, Lobb." — Holotypus, Lobb 83, from southern Brazil, the locality unknown, K(herb. hooker.)! = NY Neg. 2008. — Erroneously equated by Bentham, 1875: 583 with Pithecolobium lusorium.
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Synonyms
Calliandra obovata Benth.
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Description
Species Description - Trees 4-15 m, closely resembling and related to A. filamentosa, but the lfts never fully glabrous, either pilosulous beneath or merely ciliolate, and sometimes with a secondary nerve from the pulvinule, in fruit resembling both A. filamentosa and A. brachystachya. Stipules 0.5-3 mm. Lf-formula (i—)ii—iii(—iv)/3—4(—5, exceptionally -7), the lfts of ampler lvs to 24-4-0(-60 mm); lf-stks (1.5—)2.5—8 cm, the petiole 1-3 cm, the longer interpinnal segments 8-35 mm; nectary between first pair of pinnae either shallowly cupulate or distinctly pored, ±0.8-1.2 mm diam; rachis of longer pinnae 4—8 cm, the interfoliolar segments 12-22 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.8-2 x 1-1.2 mm; lfts obovate or rhombic-obovate, obtuse or subemarginate, the larger ones 3-6 x 2-3.5 cm. Inflorescences and fruit essentially as in A. brachystachya, the calyx of peripheral fls ±3 mm and corolla ±5.5-6.5 mm.
Distribution and Ecology - On wooded hillsides, sometimes in mata do cipó, 400-1030 m, known with certainty from E- and N- centr Minas Gerais, on both slopes of Sa. do Espinhaço around Belo Horizonte and Viçosa, N to Grão Mogol, in lat. 16°30'-21°S. — Map 25. — Fl. I-II; fr. ripe VI-X.
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Discussion
For commentary on kinship to A. brachystachya and A. filamentosa see the following discussions of those species.
All but one collection of A. obovata known to us have at most 4 pairs of leaflets in distal pinnae, several not more than 3 pairs, but the blades vary from glabrous or brownish pilosulous dorsally. The exceptional Saint-Hilaire B^/1310 (P), from an unknown locality in Minas Gerais, has up to 6, even 7 pairs, densely pilosulous on the back and ciliate. Provisionally we include this in A. obovata, with which it is otherwise in full agreement.
Abarema racemiflora is the one Central American species of its genus with loosely racemose flowers and is remarkable in its immediate group, otherwise all Andean, for length and slenderness of the individual pedicels.
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Distribution
Minas Gerais Brazil South America|