Mimosa pudica var. unijuga

  • Title

    Mimosa pudica var. unijuga

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Mimosa pudica var. unijuga (Duchass. & Walp.) Griseb.

  • Description

    379a. Mimosa pudica Linnaeus var. unijuga (Walpers & Duchassaing) Grisebach, Abh. Königl. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen 7: 211. 1857 & Fl. Brit. W.I. 219. 1864. M. unijuga Walpers & Duchassaing, Linnaea 23: 744. 1850.— "Crescit in insula Guadeloupe et ad Caracas (e seminibus Caracasanis enata in horto botanico Berolinensi colitur)." —Lectotypus (Brenan, 1955: 189), Duchassaing s.n. from Guadeloupe, GOET (not seen); presumed isotypus, "in campis humidis Guadeloupe," Duchassaing s.n., P!

    M. irritabilis K. Presl, Abh. Königl. Böhm. Ges. Wiss. V, 3: 494. 1845. [Bot. Bemerk. 64. 1844[ 1846]].— "Habitat in Martinica, Kohaut."—Holotypus, F. Kohaut in F. W. Sieber, Herb, martinic. suppl. 13, PR!; isotypi, M! PRC! W!

    M. pudibunda Willdenow, Sp. pl. 4: 1032. 1806.— Habitat in Bahia Brasiliae . .. [Sieber, commun.] Com. de Hoffmannsegg."—Holotypus, B-WILLD 19068, seen in microfiche!

    M. endymionis Martius, Flora 21(1, Beibl. 4-5): 51 (=Herb. fl. bras. 131). 1838.—Crescit in interioribus regionibus Prov. Bahiensis ad Malhada."—Holotypus, M!

    M. pudica ß forma glabrior Bentham, 1876: 397, synonymis inclusis. M. pudica fma glabrior Bentham ex Fawcett & Rendle, Fl. Jamaica 4: 134. 1920.

    M. pudica sensu Proctor, Fl. Cayman Is. 478, fig. 143. 1984; Liogier, 1985: 51.

    M. pudica var. unijuga sensu Bassler, 1985: 607.

    Characters as given in key to varieties; stems hispidulous to subglabrous.

    On streambanks, along ditches, in disturbed or waste places and in pastures, mostly below 250 m, but as a weed ascending to 1000 m or more, widespread and locally abundant around and within the Caribbean basin, thence extending rarely to the Bahamas and w. to the s. periphery of Gulf of Mexico, and s. to scattered stations on both slopes in Central America; in S. America s. interruptedly through Colombia to lowland w. Ecuador, and from Trinidad s. through the Guianas to Pará, Brazil, discontinuously to Bahia; isolated in n.-e. Bolivia and adj. Brazil (Rondônia). In the Old World extensively naturalized in s.-e. Asia (Burma, Vietnam), Sri Lanka, Polynesia, and sparingly so in e. tropical Africa (Brenan, 1959), Reunion. Hawaiian Is. Map 57.

    It seems likely, but not demonstrable from hard evidence, that an earlier name for var. unijuga is M. pudica ß glabrata DeCandolle, Prodr. 2: 426. 1825, based on Mimosa humilis, frutescens et spinosa, siliquis conglobatis Plumier ex Burman, Pl. amer. fasc. 9: t. 202. 1759, "in ins. Sancti-Domingi et Sancti-thornasii." —All modem collections from Hispaniola that I have seen represent var. unijuga, the dominant form of the species throughout the Antilles, as do all the five known collections from St. thornas. However, Plumier’s plate, at least in Burman’s reproduction, lacks the fine detail on which varietal identity hinges, and I therefore follow Brenan in discarding var. glabrata as ambiguous.