Calliandra spinosa

  • Title

    Calliandra spinosa

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Calliandra spinosa Ducke

  • Description

    53.  Calliandra spinosa Ducke, Anais Acad. Brasil. Ci. 32(2): 289. 1959. — "In Brasiliae boreali-orientalis regione sicca ‘Sertão’ appellata locis nonnullis frequens. Ceará: circa Caridade (mun. Canindé), A. Ducke, Herb. Mus. Paraensis 2117." — Holotypus, MG n.v.; isotypus, RB 5669!; paratypus e loco typico: W França, May 1958 (fl), NY!. Fig. 10.

    C. suberifera Rizzini, Rodriguesia 41: 175. 1976. — "Provenit in caatinga, Paulistana, Piauí, collegit D. P. Lima 173.307 (6-XI-1974)." — Holotypus, RB n.v.

    C. brevipes auct. brasil. bor.-or., fide Ducke, l.c. 1959; non Bentham.

    Stiffly intricately branched, microphyll, drought- deciduous shrubs and treelets attaining ±3 m but often smaller, with sinuous terete long-shoots tapering at apex into a stout vulnerant thorn, and at each primary node a condensed, closely thatched, subacaulous 1- to few-lvd brachyblast, the annotinous and older stems blanched, becoming suberous, flaking, and shallowly sulcate, the young stems, lf-axes and peduncles thinly pilosulous with straight pallid and often some twisted or granular orange-brown hairs, the narrow imbricate plane lfts nearly concolorous but more lustrous on ventral face, finely ciliolate, the dense capitula solitary, subtended by elaminate stipules of brachyblasts; phyllotaxy distichous. Stipules papery lustrous brownish, sharply striate, narrowly lanceolate or linear 3-6 x 0.6-1.1 mm, often frayed or tattered in age but not disarticulating. Lf-formula i/14—21; lf-stks beyond lf- spur 0.5-2.5 mm; rachis of pinnae 14—26 mm, the longer interfoliolar segments 0.4—1.4 mm; lft-pulvinules 0.15-0.4 x 0.2-0.5 mm; lfts decrescent near each end of rachis, the blades linear from angulate base, acute, those near mid-rachis 4—10 x 0.7-2 mm, 5-5.8 times as long as wide; venation essentially pinnate, the straight midrib dividing blade 1:1.5-2, 5-8-branched on each side, the secondary venules brochidodrome, the posterior primary nerve not or scarcely longer, the venulation delicately prominulous on both faces. Peduncles 4-13 mm, bracteate below middle, the bract lanceolate ±1-1.5 mm; capitula densely 25-30-fld, the receptacle 1.5-2.5 mm; floral bracts lanceolate incurved 1-1.5 mm, persistent; fls heteromorphic, one or more (sub)terminal ones broader and longer, all subsessile, the pedicels not over 0.4 mm; perianth either 4- or 5-merous, glabrous, the calyx finely striate but the corolla not so; PERIPHERAL FLS: calyx campanulate or cuneate-campanulate (1.1—)1.4—2.2 x (0.7-)1.2 mm, the obtuse, dorsally convex teeth 0.2-0.3 mm; corolla 3.6-5.8 mm, the ovate lobes 0.8-1.2 mm; androecium 10-20-merous, 18-24 mm, the stemonozone 0.5-0.9 mm, the tube 2-3 mm, the tassel white-rubescent; nectary 0; ovary minutely stipitate, at anthesis glabrous; TERMINAL FL(S): calyx 2.3-2.6 x 2-2.5 mm; corolla 5.5-7 mm; androecium 22-36-merous, the tube 6.5-10 mm, the intrastaminal nectary ±0.7 mm. Pod not seen, described by Ducke (protologue) as 6 x 0.7 cm, glabrous.

    In caatinga, at elevations not recorded, locally frequent within 3°30'-8°30'S and 37°-41°W in n.-e. Brazil, from n.-e. Ceará. to centr. Pernambuco and extreme s.-e. Piauí; and disjunct near 14°S, 41°W in middle Contas Valley in Bahia (mun. Tanhaçu). — Map 27. — Fl. intermittently after rains. — Umari bravo; marí bravo; espinheiro branco.

    In the context of sect. Androcallis and geminate pinnae, C. spinosa is readily recognized by its xeromorphic habit, stiff, early blanched, thorn-tipped branches, relatively numerous glabrous flowers, and white but early rubescent androecium.