Fabaceae
Canavalia

Canavalia nitida (Cav.) Piper

First published in Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 20: 562 (1925)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Mexico (Puebla), Caribbean. It is a climbing shrub and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

George R. Proctor (2012). Flora of the Cayman Isands (Second Edition). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Vernacular
HORSE BEAN
Morphology General Habit
Herbaceous vine, climbing on rocks or over bushes, the stems glabrous or nearly so; leaflets glabrous, oblong-elliptic or elliptic, mostly 5–8 cm long, 2.5–3.5 cm broad, bluntly subacuminate and minutely refuse at the apex, the fine reticulate venation slightly raised and evident on both sides
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Racemes longer than the subtending leaves; calyx with the upper lip deeply 2-cleft, the lower lip 3-lobed; corolla purple or dark violet with a pink keel, twice as long as the calyx, up to 1.6 cm long
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Pods oblong, 10–15 cm long and ca. 3 cm broad, strongly convex and of thick texture; seeds lustrous wine-red or brick-red, the linear hilum blackish.
Distribution
Grand Cayman. Originally thought to be endemic to Cuba, this species has more recently been ascribed a broader range including the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles (except Jamaica), the Virgin Islands and Mexico.
[Cayman]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of the Cayman Islands

    • Flora of the Cayman Islands
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • World Checklist of Vascular plants (WCVP)

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0