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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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CALLIANDRA TETRAGONA (Willd.) Benth.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. 2:13 9. 1840.
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Synonym
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Acacia tetragona Willd. Sp. P1. 4:1069. 1806. Mimosa quadranguwlaris Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Meth. Suppl. 1:72. 1810. Acacia quadrangularis Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. 2:445. 1822. Anneslia tetragoma Donn.-Smith, Enum. PI. Guat. 1:10. 1889. Feuilleea tetragona Ktze. Rev. Gen. P1. 1:189. 1891. Calliandra portoricensis var. multijuga Micheli, in Bot. Gaz. 20:285. 1895, fide Britt. & Rose.
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Description
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Shrub or small tree, the branchlets puberulent when young becoming glabrate, usually markedly quadrangular, longitudinally striate, scarcely lenticellate. Leaves moderately large, bipinnate, the pinnae 4-8 pairs opposite on the rachis, the leaflets 15-35 pairs per pinna; petiole mostly 2-3 cm. long, puberulent or subglabrous, angled, somewhat sulcate or ridged above, eglandular; rachis similar to the petiole, often bearing tufts of hair at insertion of the pinnae; pinnular rachis 3-8 cm. long; leaflets linear to linear-oblong, nearly straight, mostly about 8 mm. long and little more than 1 mm. wide, obtuse or somewhat acute apically, asymmetrically rounded to truncate basally, glabrous or ciliate on the margin, dull above and below, the costa somewhat excentric, the other veins obscure; stipules narrowly lanceolate, about 6 mm. long, striate, subpersistent. Inflorescence of 1 to few pedunculate heads from the upper axils, the terminal and subterminal nodes fre- quently defoliate; peduncles elongate, not uncommonly 7-8 cm. long in age, sim- ilar to the petiole; heads dense, several-flowered, globular; floral bracts minute. Flowers white; calyx funnelform-campanulate, about 2 mm. long, subglabrous, the teeth acute; corolla funnelform, about 6 mm. long, glabrous; stamens 3 cm. long or longer, the staminal tube included. Legume up to 12 cm. long and about 1 cm. wide, glabrous, otherwise typical of the genus.
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Habit
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Shrub tree
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Distribution
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Southern Mexico to northern South America.
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Specimen
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CHIRIQUI: Boquete, Pittier 3I40; Hato del Jobo, Pittier 5423. cocLE: El Valle, Allen 38I9; 'Hunter d Allen 357.
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Note
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his species is distinguished, perhaps somewhat ""unnaturally," by the tetra- gonal branchlets. Certainly some species normally identified as C. portoricensis or C. caracasana seem identical with C. tetragona except for the angled stem. It may be that a single or few-gene characteristic (angled stem) has appeared throughout the range of what might be called the C. caracasana-C. portoricensis complex. Yet this character is sufficient to distinguish (somewhat arbitrarily) this species from others of the genus.
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