Tabebuia bullata A.H.Gentry
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Authority
Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)
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Family
Bignoniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
Type. Dominican Republic. La Vega: Alto de Casabito, 1140 m, 10 Apr 1983 (fl), Gentry & Zanoni 50678 (holotype, MO; isotypes, JBSD, MO).
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Description
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Species Description - Shrub or small spindly tree 2-6 m tall, branchlets thick, subtetragonal to subterete, flattened at nodes, densely lepidote when young. Leaves 3-foliolate, the leaflets obovate to oblong-obovate, broadly rounded at apex, sometimes inconspicuously emarginate or subcuspidate, the base cuneate to obtuse, the lateral leaflets asymmetrically oblique, (5-) 10-36 cm long, (2-)4-23 cm wide, thick-coriaceous, more or less bullate, the venation slightly impressed above, conspicuously and intricately raised below, glabrescently lepidote above, below pilose with stiff trichomes along the veinlets, the trichomes rather sparse and not impressed into areoles; petiolules 0.2-1.5 cm long, thick, lenticellate, the petioles thick and short, 0.1 to 1 cm long, with conspicuous lighter lenticels, lepidote and minutely puberulous. Inflorescence terminal, openly paniculate, the stalked-lepidote trichomes as in T. acrophylla. Flowers with the calyx campanulate, irregularly ca. 5-lobed, densely lepidote and stalked-lepidote, 15-21 mm long, 8-12 mm wide, conspicuously longitudinally ridged, especially in bud; corolla white or palest pink, tubular-in-fundibuliform, 5-8 cm long, the tube 4-6 cm long, 1.3-3.5 cm wide at mouth of tube, the lobes l.5-2 cm long, glabrous outside, pilose in floor of throat inside; stamens didynamous, the thecae divaricate, 3 mm long; pistil ca. 2.5 cm long, the ovary linear, 5 mm long, 1 mm wide, densely minutely lepidote; disk annular-patelliform, 1.5 mm long, 4-5 mm wide. Immature fruit linear-cylindric, 6 cm long, 7 mm wide, longitudinally striate-costate, conspicuously rufescent with sessile and stalked peltate scales.
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Discussion
Similar to T. acrophylla but differs conspicuously in white rather than red or purple-red flowers, larger and more infundibuliform corollas, larger browner-drying strikingly ridged calyces and many-flowered openly paniculate inflorescences. The two species are also ecologically separated, T. bullata occurring at generally higher altitudes from 550-1200 m and T. acrophylla generally below 500 m. A single high altitude collection of T. acrophylla (Liogier 17190 from 1700 m) has prominently ribbed calyces, approaching T. bullata (although black drying) suggesting that there may be introgression between the two species. Vegetatively, T. bullata can be distinguished from T. acrophylla macroscopically by the different pubescence texture of the leaf undersides, gritty rather than soft; microscopically the sparser stiffer irregularly oriented trichomes of the leaf underside are quite distinct from the shorter denser trichomes appressed into the areoli of the leaf undersurface of T. acrophylla. The flowers and inflorescences of the two species are so different as to make specific recognition of the white-flowered, openly paniculate, taxon unavoidable.
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Objects
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Distribution
Endemic to upland forest in central Dominican Republic in Peravia, La Vega, and Santiago Provinces; 800-1400 m.
Dominican Republic South America| La Vega Dominican Republic South America| Peravia Dominican Republic South America| Santiago Dominican Republic South America|