Corynella paucifolia DC.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Fabaceae

• Scientific Name

  Corynella paucifolia DC.

• Description

  
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  Species Description - Restricted in natural distribution to dry parts of Porto Rico, Santo Domingo and Haiti, this shrub, attractive when flowering, is locally abundant in southwestern Porto Rico, sometimes forming quite large colonies; it has been observed from the vicinity of Coamo, west to near San German, but as it is inconspicuous, except when in bloom, the range may extend both farther east and west. The flowers mostly appear in the Spring, with the young leaves of the season. The genus Corynella (Greek, a little club, referring to the style), has only 2, or perhaps 3 species, of the northern West Indies, and was established by De Candolle in 1825, with the Santo Domingan Corynella polyantha as typical. They have once-compound leaves with few or several pairs of small leaflets, and violet-blue or purple flowers, borne solitary, or in small clusters along the branches, appearing with or before the leaves of the season. The 2 upper teeth of the bell-shaped calyx are united; the standard is broad, and reflexed, the wing-petals narrower, the keel curved, its petals partly united; there are 10 stamens, 9 of them partly united by their filaments; the ovary contains many ovules; the style is slender or club-shaped, the stigma borne on its inner side below the apex. The pods are slender, flat and narrow, very short-stalked in the persistent calyx. Corynella paucifolia (few-leaved) is a slender, upright shrub, about 2 meters high, or lower, its twigs hairy. The short-stalked leaves, from 2 to 7 centimeters long, have from 2 to 6 pairs of leaflets, which are oblong or broader above than below the middle, blunt or somewhat pointed, smooth, shining when old, 5 to 15 millimeters long, netted-veined on the upper side. The violet flowers are stalked, in small clusters; the calyx is hairy and short; the nearly orbicular standard is about 8 millimeters broad, the wing-petals elliptic, the keel bluntly pointed; the style a little thickened upward. The pod is about 5 centimeters long and 7 millimeters wide. Our illustration was first published in "Addisonia", plate 498, September, 1930.

• Discussion

  Corynella paucifolia Retama Pea Family Corynella paucifolia De Candolle, Annales des Sciences Naturelles I. 4: 93. 1825.