Cracca benensis Rusby

  • Authority

    Rusby, Henry H. 1927. Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Plants Collected on the Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Valley 1921-1922. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 7: 205-387.

  • Family

    Fabaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cracca benensis Rusby

  • Description

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    Species Description - Pubescent throughout, the hairs short and slightly ferruginous. Stems long and slender, more or less decumbent at the base, the branches irregularly sulcate or angled. Stipules setaceous, 2 or 3 nun. long. Petioles very short or wanting, the rachis 5 or 6 cm. long, rather stout, lightly costate or angled, the leaflets mostly 6 or 7 pairs, opposite, subsessile, without stipellae, to 5 cm. long and 12 mm. wide, oblanceolate, the summit rounded, mostly slightly emarginate and minutely apiculate; entire, thickish, pale-green, the venation slender, sharply prominent on both sides, the secondaries 10 to 15 on a side, nearly straight, ascending at a sharp angle. Racemes terminating the branchlets, elongate, loosely flowered, the rachis sharply angled. Bracts about half as long as the pedicels, lance-linear, acuminate and acute. Pedicels about 3 mm. long, slender. Calyx-tube about 2 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, campanulate, about as long as the shortest tooth and two thirds as long as the longest, the teeth triangular-ovate, slenderly acuminate, rigid. Vexillum 12 mm. long, 1 cm. broad, emarginate, the claw 1 or 2 mm long, broad, the base of the limb broadly rounded or subtruncate. "Wings almost equaling the vexillum, their claws adnate to that of the keel. Keel shorter than the wings, the broad summit incurved, the stigma exserted. Stamens shorter than the keel, the free portions of the filaments short and slender. Ovary elongate, tapering into the style, hirsute. Style inflexed at a right angle. Legume 4 or 5 cm. long, 4 mm. wide, linear, almost straight, the margins narrowly thickened, the persistent slender, straight style 5 or 6 mm. long. Seeds 10 to 12.

  • Discussion

    No. 1312, collected in copses in the same region, may prove to be a variety of the same. Its flowers are rose-colored, the vexillum much broader. The plant is much more hairy, with the hairs more spreading. There are only 8 or 10 leaflets. The calyx teeth are larger and broader and the legume is narrower, with smaller seeds.

  • Distribution

    Reyes, 1,000 feet, H. H. Rushy, November 13,1921 (no. 1727). Also at the same place (no. 1731) "along roadsides in wet places. Flowers blue.''

    Bolivia South America|