Leucochloron foederale (Barneby & J.W.Grimes) Barneby & J.W.Grimes

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

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.

Family

Mimosaceae

Scientific Name

Leucochloron foederale (Barneby & J.W.Grimes) Barneby & J.W.Grimes

Type

"BRAZIL. Distrito Federal: Côrrego Landim ±20 km NE of Brasília, 7 May 1966 (fr vix maturo); H. S. Irwin, Grear, Sousa & Reis dos Santos 15672." — Holotypus, UB!; isotypi, C!, G!, GH!, K!, LE!, NY!, P!, R!, S!, US!

Synonyms

Pithecellobium foederale Barneby & J.W.Grimes

Description

Species Description - Macrophyllidious trees (2—)5—15 m with trunk attaining 2 dm diam, the slender annotinous branches fissured gray, the reddish hornotinous ones with all lf- axes and peduncles villosulous with mostly incurved yellowish hairs 0.2-0.5 mm, the bicolored lfts olivaceous and except for puberulent midrib glabrous above, beneath paler dull and either glabrous or pilosulous, the margin ciliolate, the subglobose capitula axillary, solitary, immersed in foliage; ovoid perulate buds in most lf-axils. Stipules dimorphic, one of each pair lance-ovate, ±4—8 x 1.5-2 mm, papery, castaneous, striate, the other much narrower, all ciliolate distally, caducous. Lf-formula (i-)ii(-iii)/2-4, or 5-6, the inner lft of first pair often suppressed; lf-stks including livid pulvinus 12-20 mm; petiole 3-8 mm, the l(-2) interpinnal segments 7-12 mm; cupuliform nectaries between or immediately below each pair of pinnae 0.5-1.2 mm diam, 0.2-0.4 mm tall; pinnae accrescent upward, the rachis of distal pair 3-4.5 cm; lfts upwardly accrescent, the blades all asymmetrically trapezoid, semicordate at base, obtuse mucronulate at apex, those of distal pair 16-38 x 5-15 mm; venation pinnate, the straight oblique midrib giving rise on each side to several widely ascending secondary venules and a reticulum prominulous on both faces of young lfts but later immersed. Peduncles (1.5—)2—3 cm; capitula 30-40-fld, the fls homomorphic, all sessile, the conic receptacle ± 1.5 mm; bracts linear-filiform 2-5 mm; calyx cylindro-campanulate, 2-2.8 mm, a little dilated in upper third, sordid-puberulous, the tube 5-nerved, the depressed-deltate teeth ±0.2 mm; corolla 4.5-6 mm, the tube 2.5-4 mm, glabrous, the campanulate limb ± 2 mm, its ovate lobes ±0.5 mm, externally puberulous; androecium 20-25-merous, the greenish-white filaments united into a tube 7-8.5 mm, free through 6(-7) mm; anthers ±0.3 mm diam; ovary elliptic, substipitate, puberulent distally; style glabrous, 10-12.5 mm. Pods indehiscent while on the tree, in profile broad-linear, piano-compressed 11-18 x 1.9-2.5 cm, rounded mucronulate at apex, tapering at base into a stipe 1-5 mm, (3-)7-8(-9)-seeded, the slightly raised sutural rim shallowly undulate and crispate, the stiffly papery, glabrous or toward base puberulent valves becoming brown and finely venulose, scarcely elevated over each seed; funicle filiform; seeds piano-compressed, in broad profile obovate 9x7 mm, subacutely marginate, the brown testa minutely punctate overall, pleurogram 0.

Distribution and Ecology - In cerrado and gallery woodland, ±900-1000 m, known only from Chapada do Contagem (Côrrego Landim; Fercal) in Distrito Federal, Brazil. — Map 37. — Fl. IX-X, the fruit slowly maturing in V-VIII.

Discussion

This is a well-defined taxon, differing from L. incuriale and L. minarum in dimorphic stipules and relatively few, pinnately venulose leaflets, and from the former in solitary, not fasciculate capitula. In the protologue it was misplaced, following Bentham’s disposition of P. incuriale, in Pithecellobium ser. Coriacea, herein equated with the genus Macrosamanea.

Distribution

Distrito Federal Brazil South America|