Senna tonduzii (Standl.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby
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Authors
Howard S. Irwin, Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Irwin, Howard S. & Barneby, Rupert C. 1982. The American Cassiinae. A synoptical revision of Leguminosae tribe Cassieae subtrib Cassiinae in the New World. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 35, part 2: 455-918.
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Family
Caesalpiniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Holotypus, US! = NY Neg. 9685; isotypi, BR, G, GH, US!; paratypi, Tonduz 1484, 3197, E. W. Nelson 3127, US!-Peiranisia tonduzii (Standley) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23(4): 265. 1930.
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Synonyms
Cassia tonduzii Standl., Peiranisia tonduzii (Standl.) Britton & Rose, Peiranisia verbenensis Britton, Cassia verbenensis (Britton) Standl.
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Description
Species Description - Potentially arborescent shrubs, sometimes flowering at 1-3 m but capable of attaining 10 m, with ultimately gray-barked trunk, densely pallid-lenticellate annotinous and prominently ribbed hornotinous branchlets, strigulose-pilosulous with fine appressed or ascending hairs up to 0.2-0.5 mm, the dense ample foliage bicolored, the lfts glossy dark green and glabrous above, paler duller and strigulose beneath, the inflorescence a leafy panicle of mostly 2-fld racemes arising directly from axils of developed foliage lvs or from axillary leafless branchlets, the fls immersed in foliage, some rarely forming a small, shortly exserted terminal panicle. Stipules erect, falcately linear-attenuate 3-7 x 0.3-0.45 mm, at first green, early dry caducous (lacking from most mature specimens). Lvs (disregarding small ones associated with axillary flowering branchlets) 9-23 cm; petiole including dilated, discolored pulvinus (10-) 12-27 mm, at middle 0.5-1.2 mm diam, rather coarsely but narrowly wing-margined; rachis (4-)5-10.5 cm; glands between all pairs of lfts (caveat: much eaten) stipitate, in profile oblanceolate acute 1.7-4 mm tall, the stipe glabrous, the dilated red-brown body laterally compressed 0.4-0.7 mm wide; pulvinules 1-2.6 mm; lfts 4-7 pairs, strongly accrescent upward along the rachis, in outline elliptic or rarely ovate- elliptic 4-10.2 x 1.1-3.2 cm, (2.3-)2.7-4 times as long as wide, acuminate at apex and usually inversely acuminate at base, at insertion of pulvinule inequilaterally cuneate or (when broad) subcordately rounded on proximal side, the margins revolute, the centric straight midrib impressed-canaliculate above, cariniform beneath, giving rise on each side to ±7-11 pairs of camptodrome (and often some weaker intercalary) secondary veins, these faintly prominulous above, sharply so beneath, the tertiary connecting venules irregular, faint on both faces or finely prominulous beneath. Peduncles 7-24 mm; racemes 1-3-, mostly 2-fld, the axis 0-1 mm, the fls when paired opening successively; bracts obovate cymbiform ±1.5 mm, nidulating the very young buds but caducous as the pedicel starts to elongate; pedicels becoming 16-22 mm, in fruit bent at a point ±3-4 mm below hypanthium, at base subtended laterally by a stipitate or subsessile ellipsoid gland; buds globose, glabrous overall or minutely puberulent at base; sepals strongly graduated, the outer broadly obovate, the inner suborbicular, all greenish with pallid margins, the longest 7.5-10 mm; inner perianth highly irregular, the yellow petals all pubescent dorsally, 3 adaxial long-clawed oblanceolate 8-16 mm (sometimes hardly longer than androecium), early deciduous, the 2 abaxial subsessile much larger but unlike each other, one broadly flabellate-obovate or suborbicular ±2-2.5 cm, the other (alternately right and left) obliquely reniform (scoop-shaped) ±2.5-3 cm, folded over 2 longer stamens; androecium glabrous, or the filaments sometimes thinly puberulent, the filaments of 4 median stamens 1-1.8 mm, of 3 abaxial ones 1.5-4 mm, the anthers of 4 median stamens oblong, slightly incurved 3.5-4.2 mm, contracted into an erect but obliquely 2-porose beak 0.5-0.8 mm, those of 3 abaxial ones lunately incurved 5.5-8 mm, contracted into a lanceolate beak (1- porose or septate) 3-5.5(-6.5) mm; ovary densely strigulose; style gently incurved, not dilated, 1-1.4 mm; ovules 30-48. Pod pendulous, the stipe 3.5-8 mm, the body linear compressed 1218 x 0.65-0.8 cm, the papery valves lustrous brown nigrescent, remotely strigulose; seeds unknown.-Collections: 30.
Distribution and Ecology - Forest margins, wooded ravines and hillsides, thickets in the oak-belt, (650-)900-1950 m, locally plentiful but highly localized and bicentric in centr. America: central upland and highland Chiapas, s. Mexico (near 16°30'-17°30'N, 92°30'-93°30'W); highland centr. Costa Rica (s. Alajuela and adjoining n. San Jose; perhaps also Guanacaste).-Fl. (VI-)VIII-I.
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Discussion
Senna tonduzii belongs to the circum-Caribbean group of Interglandulosae that includes the better known S. robiniifolia and S. angustisiliqua, from which it differs principally in the ample elliptic-acuminate leaflets. The plants from the centers of its bicentric range in Mexico and Costa Rica appear indistinguishable and the discovery of its presence in Guatemala or Honduras would not be unexpected. In the light of Costa Rican material now available for comparison the typus of Peiranisia verbenensis emerges as nothing remarkable.
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Common Names
candelillo
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Distribution
Chiapas Mexico North America| Alajuela Costa Rica Central America| San José Costa Rica Central America| Guanacaste Costa Rica Central America|