Calliandra haematomma

Title

Calliandra haematomma

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Calliandra haematomma (Bertero ex DC.) Benth.

Description

82.  Calliandra haematomma (de Candolle) Bentham, London J. Bot. 3: 103. 1844. — "typus infra sub var. haematommate indicatur.

Erect or exceptionally diffuse-depressed, intricately stiffly branched, microphyll shrubs (0.2-)0.8-2.5(-4) m tall with gray or blanched older stems, virgate long-shoots, and acaulous brachyblasts, armed at all or at most nodes with a pair of straight, ascending or declined, slenderly tapering or more stoutly conical, spinescent spicules arising from the exterior base of stipules associated with (often caducous) primary lvs, the young growth variably pilosulous or puberulent and commonly glabrescent, the firm plane lfts most often glabrous but sometimes ciliate, or glabrous ventrally and thinly strigulose dorsally, or finely pilosulous overall, the peduncles and corollas often more densely pubescent but sometimes glabrous, the capitula arising singly (exceptionally geminate) from efoliate axils of tightly thatched brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules of primary lvs lanceolate or narrowly to broadly triangular 0.4-3(-3.5) x 0.4-1.2 mm, (3-)5-9-nerved, becoming dry, disintegrating but not disjointing in age, those of brachyblasts smaller, persistent. Lf-formula i/2-3, 3-12, 14—18, but the small anterior first lft sometimes suppressed and the lfts then of uneven number; lf-stks 0.6-12 x 0.2-0.4 mm; rachis of pinnae (0.7-)l-33 mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.4-4 mm; lft-pulvinules obsolete or to 0.25 mm diam; lfts distally accrescent, the blades obovate, oblance-obovate, or narrow-oblong, from shallowly semicordate base, broadly obtuse and sometimes incipiently apiculate, the penultimate pair 2-9 x 0.8-4 mm, 1.4-4.1 times as long as wide, the terminal pair often proportionately wider than the rest; venation prominulous dorsally or sometimes on both faces of blade, rarely subimmersed, the straight midrib displaced to divide blade ±1:1.5-2, 24-branched on the broader side, 1 weak posterior primary nerve incurved- ascending well short of mid-blade. Peduncles 3-25 mm, either bracteate or not, the bract either below or above middle, <1 mm; capitula 7-21-fid, the receptacle ±1-1.5 mm diam; floral bracts ovate or lanceolate 0.3-1.6 mm, persistent; fls sessile, homomorphic as to perianth but some lacking pistil, most bisexual, the perianth 5(-6)-merous, the calyx dry, brown, striately 15-20-nerved, commonly glabrous externally (except for puberulent orifice) but occasionally puberulent beyond the tube or silky-pilosulous overall, the corolla usually densely subappressed-pilosulous with white, ± lustrous hairs, in two varieties characteristically or randomly glabrous overall; calyx campanulate (1-)1.3-3.3 x 1-1.8 mm, the narrowly or broadly ovate or depressed-ovate teeth 0.2—1.3(—1.8) mm, one or two sinuses sometimes more deeply split; corolla 3-5.1 mm, the erect, narrowly ovate or lanceolate lobes (0.5-)0.9-1.6 mm; androecium (8-)9-17(-20)-merous, (12.5-)14-25 mm, the tube 2-5.5 mm, the stemonozone 0.4-1.2 mm, the tassel most often bright red, seldom pink, in var. glabrata whitish; no intrastaminal disc; ovary at anthesis villosulous, 2-5(-6)-ovulate. Pods 1-6 per capitulum, erect, in broad profile 3-7 x 0.4-0.9 cm, the sutural keels in dorsal view ±1.4-2.2 mm wide, the coriaceous, recessed valves not or only faintly cross-venulose, finely pilose or puberulent overall, exceptionally glabrate; seeds in broad view orbicular-obovate or elliptic-oblong ±5.5-6.5 x 2.5-4.8 mm, the smooth hard testa light brown, speckled or mottled.

Except for the closely related C. pedicellata, sympatric in Hispaniola but instantly recognized by its umbelliform capitula, C. haematomma is the only calliandra with dorsally spiculate primary stipules. It is heteromorphic in pubescence of leaves and flowers and in number and size of leaflets; moreover, the spicules vary greatly in development, even along one branch. As material has accumulated, discontinuities between the segregate species and varieties have become increasingly elusive, and the taxonomic level of several has become precarious. In recognition of this state of affairs, a comprehensive interpretation of C. haematomma seems appropriate. The key that follows separates seven varietal taxa, but these are uniform neither in area of dispersal nor in degree of internal variability. The var. glabrata, localized in southeastern Jamaica, has one unique character, a white tassel, which coincides with glabrous corolla, of uncommon occurrence elsewhere. The vars. locoensis and tortuensis are known each from a single population, and are essentially monomorphic, so far as known. The Cuban var. colletioides has on the average fewer leaflets and simultaneously longer spicules than the rest, and var. rivularis on the average longer leaf-stalk and bigger leaflets. Over most of Hispaniola and in scattered stations eastward var. haematomma has most commonly glabrous leaflets and silky-pubescent corollas, but forms, otherwise identical, that combine glabrous leaflets with glabrous (glabrescent) corollas or pubescent leaflets with either glabrous or silky corollas, occur at random in the same range, sometimes even in one population. It came as a surprise to find that the Bahaman populations of C. haematomma have appreciably ampler leaflets than those of Hispaniola, such as to deserve equivalent taxonomic status. There seems to be no pattern to the variation observed in length of calyx and corolla or the proportion between them.

The epithet haematomma (Gr. haimat-, blood + omma, eye or light, in reference to the brilliantly colored filaments) appeared first in the corrupt form haematoma, and was shortly afterward republished by Kurt Sprengel as haimatostoma (haimat- + stoma, mouth, without obvious significance). Both epithets were attributed to Bertero and it is not known which was actually written by him. In the protologue of C. haematomma that appeared in de Candolle’s Memoires sur la famille des Legumineuses, anterior in composition although posterior in publication to that in the Prodromus, the epithet is written haematomma, and it was this form that Bentham transferred to Calliandra and that has become standardized in modern literature of the Antillean flora. Herein C. haematostoma Sprengel is treated as an independent, taxonomically superfluous synonym of C. haematomma de Candolle. The two spellings, as they occur in subsequent literature, are interpreted as orthographic variants.