Lysiloma divaricatum (Jacq.) J.F.Macbr.

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

S. W. Gale, & Pennington, T. (2004). Lysiloma (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) in Mesoamerica. Kew Bulletin, 59(3), 453-467. doi:10.2307/4110952

Type

West Indies, plate t. 395 in Pl. Hort. Schoenb. 3: 76 (1798).

Morphology General Habit

Small to medium sized tree up to 15 m tall, with heavy branching and an open spreading crown

Morphology General Bark

Bark grey- brown to greyish black with prominent orange lenticels, rough, flaking and curling into thick chunky plates

Morphology Trunk Slash

Slash/sapwood pink to blood red

Morphology Leaves Stipules

Stipules 3 - 7 mm long, narrow and triangular with an acute apex, or ovate with membranous and asymmetric wings tapering to a pungent apex

Morphology Leaves

Leaves (4 -)5 - 9(- 12.3) cm long; petioles 0.9 - 1.8(- 2.3) cm long, bearing a glabrous short cylindrical to cupular gland, up to 2 mm diameter, within 5 mm of the apex; rachis 3.4 - 7.5(- 10.3) cm long, glabrous or weakly puberulent along the adaxial ridges, occasionally with one squat discoid or cupular gland at the apex; pinnae 5 - 11 pairs per leaf, pinna rachis glabrous, occasionally puberulent along the adaxial ridges

Morphology Leaves Leaflets

Leaflets (17 -) 23 - 36(- 47) pairs per pinna, (2 -)3 - 7(- 11) mm long, 0.5 - 1.8(- 2.2) mm wide, linear-oblong, slightly falcate at the apex, apex acute or occasionally obtuse, base weakly asymmetric, secondary veins visible on the abaxial side, glabrous or occasionally with a thin pubescence on both surfaces, usually widely spaced along the pinna rachis with 1 - 2.2 mm separating adjacent leaflet petiolules, though sometimes imbricate and occasionally with the leaflets folded inwards along the pinna rachis

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescences simple, usually solitary or with 2 - 3(- 5) per fascicle arising from leaf axils or leafless nodes, capitulum a globose head, the floral axis 1 - 2 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers sweetly scented, sessile; floral bracteoles spathulate, to 2 mm long, weakly pubescent towards the apex, persistent; calyx glabrous except for the weakly pubescent lobes, 1.5 - 2 mm tall, the corolla ± twice as tall as the calyx, the lobes weakly pubescent

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Pods dehiscing craspedially (the valves detaching along the sutural ridges), glossy, brown to dark purplish black, oblong, rarely elliptic, (7 -)9.5 - 15 cm long, 1 - 2.2(- 3.2) cm wide, often twisted, margins usually parallel, rarely sinuate, base acute, apex acute or rostrate; exocarp smooth, not scaling, thin and waxy, tightly attached to the endocarp and persistent, the seed chambers clearly visible externally; peduncles slender, occasionally stout, 0.8 - 1.5(- 2) mm diameter, 1.7 - 3.3 cm long; stipe 0.4 - 1(- 1.3) cm long, with 1 -4 pods per capitulum.

Vernacular

Mauto (Mexico), Quebracho (Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua), Quebracho negro (El Salvador), Quitaz (Mexico), Tepemesquite (Mexico), Tepemisque (El Salvador), Yaje (El Salvador).

Distribution

From southern Arizona, through western Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua to northwest Costa Rica (Guanacaste and Puntarenas).

Ecology

In dry deciduous and mixed pine forest and occasionally scrub forest with Cactaceae, from 40 to 1100 m altitude, though up to 1750 m in Mexico. On slopes growing on volcanic soils and sandy clays. Commonly associated with Caesalpinia pannosa (in Baja California), Chloroleucon mangense, Leucaena macrophylla and Senna mollissima and Acacia, Parkinsonia, Calicophyllum, Mimosa, Myrospermum and Burseraceae species.

Note

The capitula of Lysiloma divaricata closely resemble those of L. latisiliqua but the former can be readily distinguished by its usually smaller, more numerous leaflets, and by its larger number of pinnae per leaf. The exocarp of its pod is persistent and when ripe usually forms a tight skin over the valves such that the seeds become visible through it.

International Legume Database and Information Service

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Tree

International Legume Database and Information Service

Conservation

Not Threatened

Morphology General Habit

Perennial, Not climbing, Shrub/Tree