Paubrasilia Gagnon, H.C. Lima & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 36. 2016.
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publication ID |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.240.101716 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/75917B0E-8243-BC8E-3135-0774086A6369 |
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treatment provided by |
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scientific name |
Paubrasilia Gagnon, H.C. Lima & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 36. 2016. |
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Paubrasilia Gagnon, H.C. Lima & G.P. Lewis, PhytoKeys 71: 36. 2016. View in CoL
Figs 36 View Figure 36 , 38 View Figure 38 , 55 View Figure 55
Type.
Paubrasilia echinata (Lam.) Gagnon, H.C. Lima & G.P. Lewis [≡ Caesalpinia echinata Lam.]
Description.
Medium sized to large tree, armed with small to large, upturned prickles, these usually arising from woody protuberances, bark flaking in large woody plates; heartwood red, with the trunk exuding a red sap when injured. Stipules caducous (on seedlings lanceolate, acute to acuminate). Leaves bipinnate, ending with a pair of pinnae; pinnae in (2) 3-20 alternate pairs; leaflets alternate, (2) 3-19 (21) leaflets per pinna (generally the number of leaflets is inversely proportional to their size). Inflorescence a terminal, or occasionally axillary, raceme or panicle, with 15-40 flowers. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic; hypanthium persistent as a shallow cup or abscising to form a small free ring around the pedicel apex as the fruit matures; sepals 5, caducous, the lowest sepal cucullate, covering the other 4 in bud; petals 5, free, bright yellow, eglandular, the median petal with a blood-red blotch on the inner face; stamens 10, free, eglandular, the filaments densely pubescent on lower half; ovary pubescent with bristles intermixed. Fruit a spiny, finely pubescent, sub-lunate, woody, elastically dehiscent legume with twisting valves, 1-2-seeded. Seeds laterally compressed.
Chromosome number.
2 n = 24 ( Beltrão and Guerra 1990)
Included species and geographic distribution.
Monospecific ( P. echinata ), endemic to eastern Brazil, from the state of Rio Grande do Norte to Rio de Janeiro (Fig. 55 View Figure 55 ).
Ecology.
Dry coastal cactus scrub often on rocky outcrops, inland in Mata Atlântica, and in tall restinga on well-drained sandy soil.
Etymology.
“Pau-brasil” is the national tree of Brazil and has long been associated with the country. The Latinization of its well-known and much used common name recognises the importance of the species to Brazil.
Human uses.
Widely cultivated in Brazil as an ornamental street or park tree, and sometimes in plantations. The tree’s red sap was once used for dying cotton and cloth and its wood is much prized for the manufacture of high-quality violin bows ( Bueno 2002).
Notes.
Originally described as Caesalpinia echinata by Lamarck (1785), this phylogenetically isolated taxon was placed in its own monospecific genus by Gagnon et al. (2016). A detailed account of this iconic species is available in Bueno (2002).
Taxonomic references.
Bueno (2002); Cardoso et al. (1998, 2005); Gagnon et al. (2016); Lewis (1998).
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.