Albizia tomentosa

  • Title

    Albizia tomentosa

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Albizia tomentosa (Micheli) Standl.

  • Description

    5. Albizia tomentosa (M. Micheli) Standley, J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 13: 6. 1923. Pithecolobium tomentosum M. Micheli, Mém. Soc. Phys. Genève 34: 285, t. 28. 1903. — "[MEXICO. Michoacán:] . . . rives de l’Espiritu Santo [near 18°50'N, 101°75'W — see McVaugh, Candollea 13: 197. 1951], 600 m, [19] avril, 1898, [Langlasse] n. 107; Zilmatango [on original label Zihuatanejo, Guerrero 6] aout 1898, n. 280." — Lectotypus (Standley, 1922: 396): Langlasse 107, G!; isotypi, P!, NY (fragm.)!, US 385667!, paratypi, Langlasse 280, G!, P!.

    Albizzia (?) purpusii Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 45. 1928. — "Remulatero [= Rancho Remudadero, 19°15'N, 96°34'W], Veracruz, April, 1922, [C.A.] Purpus 8723." — Holotypus, NY!; isotypi, UC 214372\, US 1169664!. Albizzia hummeliana Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 46. 1928. — "Near Hill Bank, New River Lagoon, British Honduras, January 26, 1926, Samuel J. Record 27— Holotypus, US 1209912!; clastotypus (fragm.) + photo, NY!. — Equated with A. tomentosa by Standley & Steyermark, 1946: 18.

    Albizzia tomentosa sensu Standley, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 23: 1659. 1926; Britton & Rose, 1928: 45; Standley & Steyermark 1946: 18; McVaugh, 1987: 46.

    Amply foliate trees 5-25(-30) m with trunk attaining 7(-8) dm dbh, sometimes fertile as treelets 2-4 m, the bluntly angulate young stems and all axes of lvs and inflorescences pilosulous with widely spreading- incurved or forwardly incumbent, pallid or lutescent hairs to 0.1-0.25(-0.35) mm, the lvs moderately bicolored, the dull olivaceous lfts somewhat paler beneath, either puberulent on both faces (but often sparsely inconspicuously so) or pilosulous along midrib beneath, the inflorescence composed of efoliate pseudoracemes of small fasciculate capitula, the lowest of these usually subtended by a developed lf but the distal ones forming an immersed or shortly exserted, either efoliate or hysteranthously foliate panicle (random pseudoracemes reduced to a single axillary fascicle), the axis of each element of inflorescence determinate. Stipules subulate or narrowly triangular 0.8-2.2 mm, caducous. Lf-formula iii-xiii (-xv)/6-22(-28); lf-stk of lvs at and near base of panicle 4.5-22(-25) cm, the petiole 1.2-3.5(-5) cm, at middle (0.8-) 1.2-2.4 mm diam, the ventral groove continuous between pinnae, the longer interpinnal segments 11-21 (-25) mm; nectary below midpetiole, often adjacent to lf-pulvinus, sessile, shallowly patelliform, in outline narrowly elliptic (1.5—) 1.8—5.5(—8) mm, no further nectaries on lf-stk but small ones on pinna-rachises at furthest 1-3 pairs of lfts; pinnae distally accrescent, the rachis of longer pairs 4.5- 10.5(12) cm, their longer interfoliolar segments 4—9(—11) mm; lfts a little decrescent at one or both ends of rachis, otherwise subequilong, in outline symmetrically or asymmetrically oblong, broad-linear, or oblong-elliptic from an either obliquely truncate, or shallowly cordate, or semicordate base, at apex either obtuse or obtuse and apiculate, those near midrachis (11-) 12-22(-24) x 3-8(-11.5) mm, (2-)2.2-4 times as long as wide; venation initially palmate, the slender, dorsally prominulous, straight or beyond middle gently incurved midrib either nearly centric or forwardly displaced to divide blade 1:1.5-2.5, the inner posterior primary nerve incurved-ascending beyond midblade, the outer 2-3 progressively shorter, the anterior primary faint or 0, the midrib giving rise on each side to 5-8 weak secondary nerves brochidodrome shortly within the revolute margin, tertiary venulation weak and random, the whole venulation immersed or almost so on ventral face. Primary axis of pseudoracemes (2—)4—14 cm; longer peduncles 12-26 mm; capitula (14-)20-40-fld, the receptacle not over 2 mm, terminal pedestal 0; bracts persistent through anthesis, spatulate (or the lowest obovate-cuneate) (0.4—)0.7-1.3 mm, the incurved tip pilosulous externally; fls dimorphic, the peripheral ones either shortly pedicellate or subsessile, the terminal one sessile, stouter but scarcely longer, its androecium modified; perianth 5 (or in random terminal fls 6)-merous, the calyx usually pilosulous externally around the orifice, sometimes only ciliolate, sometimes puberulent overall, the greenish corolla either glabrous or distally puberulent, the filaments white; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicel (0-)0.3-0.8 x 0.3-0.6 mm; calyx turbinate, 1.4-2.4 x 1.1-1.6 mm, the tube bluntly pentagonal, the depressed-deltate or -ovate teeth 0.2-0.5 mm; corolla 3-5(-5.7) mm, the lance- ovate lobes 1.1-1.8 x 0.65-1.1 mm; androecium 18- 32-merous, 9.5-17 mm long, the stemonozone 0.10.8 mm, the tube 1.6-3.5(-4.4) mm; ovary slenderly ellipsoid, attenuate into style, glabrous: stigma scarcely dilated, not more than 0.2 mm diam; TERMINAL FL: calyx broadly campanulate 2-3 x 2-2.6 mm, the teeth 0.2-0.6 mm; corolla 4.2-5.5 mm; androecium 26-38-merous, the tube (2.5-)3-6(-9) mm, at apex 1-2 mm diam, the filaments thence either basally thickened or filiform. Pods l(-2) per capitulum, sessile or almost so, in profile broad-linear straight, piano-compressed, cuneately attenuate at base, abruptly apiculate, when well fertilized 10-14 x 1.5-2.7 cm, 8-12-seeded, the stiffly papery, fuscous-green or ultimately stramineous, closely transverse-venulose, either glabrous, or minutely puberulous, or subvelutinous valves framed by dilated, dorsally carinate (but not winged), puberulent sutures (0.7—)1.1—1.6 mm wide, the endocarp smooth but not satiny, tan overall; dehiscence tardy, inert, through both sutures; seeds transverse at middle of pod, basifixed on compressed, apically sigmoid funicle, oblong-ellipsoid, strongly compressed, in broad profile 6.5-8 x 4.5-5.3 mm, the smooth tan testa translucent when soaked (resembling grapeskin) loosely investing the embryo, commonly with a white enlarged ridge produced from hilum to just below the U-shaped pleurogram, this ±3 x 1.7-2.5 mm.

    In drought-deciduous woodland and at edge of evergreen forest or in savanna tree islands, from sea level to 450 m, scattered in lowland tropical Mexico and adjacent Belize and Guatemala: in Mexico extending on the Pacific slope from Jalisco through the Balsas basin and along the coast to Chiapas, and (in slightly modified form) on the Gulf-Caribbean slope from centr. Veracruz to Yucatán, S into centr. Belize and NW Guatemala (Huehuetenango, Petén). — Map 54. — Fl. Ill—VII. — Guejillo (guajillo), parotillo (SW Mexico); tepozonte (Veracruz); cantemoc (Guatemala).

    As defined by the foregoing description and synonymy, A. tomentosa is polymorphic in foliage, though nearly uniform, except for length of filaments, in the flower, and essentially so in form of the fruit. On the Pacific slope the leaf-formula is mostly ii- v/6-9(-10) and the androecium is 12-17 mm long; on the Gulf-Caribbean slope the leaf-formula is v-xii (-xv)/( 10-) 12-28 and the androecium of peripheral flowers is only 9.5-12 mm long. The leaflets vary in outline and proportions, being generally broader when fewer, and more inequilateral when more numerous and narrower, but the variation is far from stabilized on either slope of the continent. The eastern form is confined to the selva mediana caducifolia of the coastal plain and lower interior foothills. We suspect that A. purpusii, corresponding with the eastern phase of the species, may deserve infraspecific rank. Albizzia hummeliana was described from a fruiting specimen of this phase of A. tomentosa.