Chloroleucon mangense var. lentiscifolium

Title

Chloroleucon mangense var. lentiscifolium

Author(s)

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Chloroleucon mangense var. lentiscifolium (A.Rich.) Barneby & J.W.Grimes

Description

10e. Chloroleucon mangense var. lentiscifolium (A. Richard) Barneby & Grimes, comb. et stat. nov. Acacia lentiscifolia A. Richard in Sagra, Hist. Phys. Cuba, Bot. Pl. Vasc. 469. 1846. — "Crescit circa Havanam, mensibus novembre et decembre florens." — Holotypus, R. de la Sagra s.n. e Cuba, P(herb. richard., 2 sheets)!. — Pithecolobium lentiscifolium (A. Richard) C. Wright in F. A. Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Ci. Med. Habana 5: 407. 1869. Chloroleucon lentiscifolium (A. Richard) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 37. 1928; Bisse, 1982: 221 ("Chloroleucum'’).

Almost always glabrous throughout, a pilosulous form known only locally in Pinar del Río; lf-formula iii/5—7(—8), the larger lfts becoming at maturity oblong-obovate 8-15 x 3-7 mm, (1.9—)2—3 times as long as wide. Pods 9-14 x 0.8-1.1 cm, nearly straight to strongly falcate, the sutures not constricted between seeds, these crowded along the pod, obliquely descending.

In dry thickets, often on limestone, sometimes in savanna, along watercourses, or on dunes, below 250 m, widespread and common over the W half of Cuba, from Pinar de Río and Isla de la Juventud to Las Villas; Belize (Corozal distr.). — Map 42. — Fl. Ill—V-X, perhaps at other times. — Guayabillo (Cuba).

The var. lentiscifolium is feebly distinguished by the combination of few, relatively large leaflets and a pod at once short, narrow, and not constricted between seeds. Specimens intermediate to var. leucospermum in Yucután and to var. vincentis on Paraguaná peninsula in northwest Venezuela connect var. lentiscifolium with the more populous and widespread varieties of Ch. mangense.