Moldenhawera intermedia G.P.Lewis & L.P.Queiroz

Lewis, G.P. & de Queiroz, L.P. 2010. Moldenhawera intermedia (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae), a new species from the Brazilian state of Bahia. Kew Bulletin 65: 205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-010-9200-9

Ecology

A canopy tree in semi-deciduous forest, the type collection is from a cocoa plantation with remnant shade trees.

Conservation

Moldenhawera intermedia is apparently a rare species. It was first collected in a cocoa plantation in 1999, the same year that the Queiroz et al. revision of the genus Moldenhawera was published in Kew Bulletin. The species is native in semi-deciduous forest and is evidently retained as a valuable cocoa shade tree. No other collections of the taxon were unearthed during the study of specimens from twenty three herbaria during preparation of the 1999 revision and it is very likely that the species is not widespread in Bahia. M. intermedia is currently known only from the type collection and one additional sterile collection made in 2008 by the second author and collaborators; its conservation status is thus Data Deficient (DD).

Vernacular

Brasileta, a name also used in the area for the Brazil-wood tree (Caesalpiniaechinata Lam.), probably due to close resemblance of the bark and red wood of the two species. The wood is used locally to make furniture.

Note

Moldenhawera intermedia combines diagnostic characters of the three sections of the genus recognised by Queiroz et al. (1999), namely the staminodes with slender filaments and longitudinal dehiscent anthers and the caudate leaflets of sect. Moldenhawera, the pinnate leaves with compound stipules and staminodes with erostrate anthers of section Brasilianae, and the pink petals of section Acuminatae. Thus, this new species seems to present an intermediate position between the three main lineages identified by Queiroz et al. (1999). The unique combination of characters (pinnate leaves with acute to caudate apices, pink petals, pentamerous flowers, and staminode filaments 1.5 to 3 × longer than the anthers which dehisce by slits not pores) differentiates M. intermedia from all other species in the genus. It is, in addition, the only species of the genus reported to have deciduous foliage. It is most similar to M. acuminata, a species from eastern Maranhão state, but the flower buds are elliptic-oblong (not ovoid), the flowers pentamerous (not tetramerous), the staminode filaments longer than the anthers (not vice versa), and the indumentum around the filament insertion of the fertile anther is of stiff trichomes (not a dense woolly indumentum).

Type

Brazil, Bahia, Município de Itajú, Faz. Nova Esperança, c. 13 km de Ibicaraí, 26 Oct. 1999, J. G. Jardim, E. C. Batista & R. D. de Santana 2259 (holotypus CEPEC; isotypiHUEFS!, MO! photo K!, NY).

Morphology General Habit

Tree to c. 10 m tall, trunk 18 – 35 cm DBH, bark brown to greyish brown, outer bark breaking off in large irregular woody plates to expose an orange-coloured under-bark, foliage deciduous, flowering occurring with young leaves

Morphology General Indumentum

Trichomes of two types: translucent or white to pale orange-brown, short (0.3 – 0.4 mm), symmetrical, medifixed, appressed hairs (appearing slightly pinched centrally when viewed from above), these most evident on young stems, lower leaflet surfaces, inflorescence rachises, pedicels and calyces, and larger (to 1 mm) rust-brown, asymmetrical, medifixed, patent hairs randomly scattered on various parts of the plant

Morphology Leaves Stipules

Stipules persistent, compound, when fully developed with the axis 3 – 4 mm long, the 3 orbicular segments 5 – 7 × 4 – 4.5 mm, or caducous (not seen on the flowering type specimen)

Morphology Leaves

Leaves paripinnate; on flowering specimens the petiole c. 2.3 – 3.5 cm long, the rachis c. 6 – 10 cm long, ± cylindrical, slightly channelled above; petiolules 2 – 3 mm long, with a dense, appressed, rust-brown indumentum; leaflets coriaceous, in 4 – 5 opposite pairs per leaf, these becoming progressively larger towards the leaf apex, leaflet blades elliptic to broadly lanceolate, apex acute to short-caudate, very slightly mucronulate, base cuneate to rounded, upper surface ± nitid, all venation slightly raised and with a sparse indumentum, especially on the midvein, glabrescent, lower surface dull, midvein prominent, secondary venation brochidodromous with c. 6 – 12 raised pairs, reticulate tertiaries flush with the leaflet surface (but easily observed with the naked eye) or slightly raised, indumentum moderate, especially on the midvein, distal leaflets 4.8 – 6.2 × 2 – 2.5 cm; when leaves fully developed (sterile specimens) the petiole 4.5 – 8 cm long, the rachis 12.5 – 17.2 cm long, leaflets 7 – 11.2 × 4 – 5.2 cm, petiolule 4 – 5 mm long, becoming glabrate

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence a pseudopanicle, the individual racemes clustered into fascicles of two to four; peduncle somewhat flattened, 3 – 4 (–5) cm long, rachis 7.5 – 12 cm long; flowers pentamerous; pedicels 5 – 7 mm long, bracts linear-lanceolate to filiform, c. 5 mm long, caducous, flower buds elliptic-oblong, sepals equal in shape and size, 8 – 10 × 1.3 – 2 mm, the apex acute with an inward-pointing, slightly fleshy, microscopically hairy tooth, the outer surface with a dense appressed indumentum; petals pink, subequal in shape and size, the apex slightly wavy, the base tapering to a short 2.5 – 4 mm long claw, the blade 6 – 7 × 3 mm, outer surface of the blade densely appressed hairy; stamens 10 (1 fertile stamen and 9 staminodes), the fertile stamen much longer than the staminodes (equalling the gynoecium in length), with a thicker, fleshy, 12 – 13 mm long filament, its dorsifixed 1.8 × 1.2 mm anther much shorter than the filament, white hairs clustered around the insertion of the filament; the 9 staminodes in two whorls (alternating longer and shorter), the straight, slender filaments 4 – 6 mm long, 1.5 – 3 × longer than the dorsifixed anthers in bud, with long, dense, rust-red trichomes clustered around the filament insertion, anthers 1.5 – 1.8 × c. 0.8 mm, all with a ± apiculate apex, and the thecae dehiscing by longitudinal slits; the ovary 3 – 4 × 1.3 mm, densely hairy with rust-red trichomes, the slender style tapering to a simple terminal stigma

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Fruit, as yet, unknown

Distribution

Brazil: Bahia. To date only known from one small population in the municipality of Itaju do Colônia in Southern Bahia.