Tabebuia simplicifolia Carabia ex Alain

Authority

Gentry, Alwyn H. 1992. Bignoniaceae--part II (Tribe Tecomeae). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 25: 1-370. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Bignoniaceae

Scientific Name

Tabebuia simplicifolia Carabia ex Alain

Type

Type. Cuba. Oriente (Holguín): Sierra de Nipe, Mayari, Carabia 3701 (holotype, HAC; isotypes, MO, NY).

Description

Species Description - Shrub 3-4 m tall, dichotomously branched, the leaves loosely clustered toward branch apices, the branchlets subterete. Leaves simple, opposite, elliptic to obovate, emarginate, very rarely inconspicuously apiculate (Alain & Clemente 1025), cuneate to rounded at base, 1.4-5.5 cm long, 0.5-2.7 cm wide (at least some more than 2 cm long), thick coriaceous, lepidote above and below, more or less concolorous, drying olive brown above and below; petioles 0.3-1 cm long. Inflorescence one or two flowers from the branch apices, the pedicels 10-18 mm long. Flowers with the calyx infundibuliform, more or less regularly bilabiate to irregularly 2-3-labiate, 8-12 mm long, 5-7 mm wide, densely lepidote but drying blackish, not lepidote inside; corolla pinkish, tubular-infundibuliform, 2.5-4 cm long, 1-1.2 cm wide at mouth of tube, the tube 2-3 cm long, the lobes 0.5-1 cm long, glabrous or with a few lepidote glands outside, puberulous on inside of lobes and in throat with rather stiff trichomes; pistil 2-2.5 cm long, the ovary oblong, densely lepidote, 23 mm long, 1.2 mm wide; disk annular-pulvinate, 1 mm long, 2 mm wide. Fruit narrowly cylindrical, 5.5-15 cm long, 0.6-0.9 cm wide, strongly longitudinally ribbed, densely lepidote, drying dark brown to blackish, the calyx caducous or persistent; seeds not seen.

Discussion

As in other Cuban Tabebuia complexes it is not always obvious where to draw the lines between T. simplicifolia and related species. Urban treated this species as a simple-leaved form of T. lepidota. The disjunct population at Cajalbana, Pinar del Río, identified by Alain (in herb.) as T. lepidophylla, is closer to T. simplicifolia as here defined, despite the presence of an apiculus on some leaves. This may be a uniformly simpleleaved form of T. lepidota. Indeed, T. simplicifolia itself may eventually prove better regarded as a simple-leaved morph of T. lepidota. Tabebuia simplicifolia is also very similar to T. obovata from which it differs most obviously in concolorous distinctly emarginate leaves which are smooth to the touch above. A form with subsessile oval leaves rough above and with the venation raised below from Jauco, Baracoa region (Leon 12422) has been given an unpublished name, and is intermediate with T. obovata. Morton 9725 is intermediate between this form and T. simplicifolia, having the typical leaf shape and petiole but the venation raised beneath. There is also a collection intermediate between T. simplicifolia and T. linearis (Clemente & Alain 4023 from Jaragua Falls, Cayoguan, Moa region) which has the leaves barely emarginate to rounded apically and 2.5-5.7 cm long by 0.8-l(-1.6) cm wide. Even though the leaf shape approaches T. linearis, the leaves are not discolored below and the collection seems better referred to T. simplicifolia.

Distribution

Mostly in serpentine barrens in the Sierra de Nipe and Moa regions of eastern Oriente; also known from single collections from Camagüey, Matanzas, and Villa Clara Provinces and from an apparent disjunct population at Cajalbana, Pinar del Rio; 100-900 m elevation.

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