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(Last Modified On 11/15/2012)
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(Last Modified On 11/15/2012)
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Species
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ACACIA SPADICIGERA Schlecht. & Cham.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Linnaea 5:594. 1830.
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Synonym
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Acacia nicoyensis Schenck, in Fedde Rep. Sp. Nov. 12:360. 1913. Acacia cubensis Schenck, loc. cit. 1913, fide Britt. & Rose. Acacia furcella Safford, in Jour. Wash. Acad. 4:359. 1914, fide Britt. & Rose. Acacia Hernandezii Safford, loc. cit. 358. 1914, fide Britt. & Rose. Tauroceras spadicigerum Britt. & Rose, in N. Am. Fl. 23:85. 1928.
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Description
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Shrub or small tree, the branchlets glabrous, armed with large, hollow, grayish, paired, myrmecophilous stipular spines connate at the base and resembling bull horns. Leaves moderate, bipinnate, the pinnae mostly 2-8 pairs, the leaflets many (12-30 or more) pairs per pinna; petiole about 1 cm. long, glabrous, expanded above into a large, longitudinally oblong, glandular area bearing a solitary, ex- tended conic "nectary"; rachis a few cm. long, glabrous, sulcate above, sometimes bearing an orbicular gland at insertion of the lowermost pair of pinnae; pinnae up to 7 cm. long, glabrous; leaflets linear, 5-10 mm. long and almost 2 mm. wide, rounded-mucronulate apically, obliquely truncate basally, glabrous, both costa and secondary veins noticeable; stipules modified as large, myrmecophilous spines as much as 8 cm. long. Inflorescence of axillary, pedunculate spikes; peduncles very short, usually about 3 mm. long, glabrous, bearing below the middle a 4- partite involucre; spikes oblong, mostly about 3 cm. long and almost 1 cm. wide, gross, spadix-like, the tips of the bractlets protruding. Flowers very small, very condensed, presumably yellow; calyx tubular-truncate, about 1 mm. long, glabrous; corolla included within calyx; stamens scarcely 2 mm. long. Legume oblong, about 8 cm. long (including beak) and about 13 mm. in diam., stipitate, long- beaked (the beak about 3 cm. long), terete, indehiscent, pulpy, the pericarp thin, the seeds transverse.
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Habit
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Shrub tree
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Distribution
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Mexico, northern Central America, Costa Rica; Panama?
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Note
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This species is reported by modern authors from Costa Rica but not from Panama. Bentham incorrectly listed Cuming 1270 from Panama as A. spadicigera (Trans. Linn. Soc. 30:514), the specimen actually being A. costaricensis. Never- theless, there remains a distinct possibility that the species does occur and will eventually be collected in Panama. As with a number of pulpy legumes, the fruit of this species is commonly eaten by local peoples in Central America.
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