Colletia paradoxa (Spreng.) Escalante, 1946

Echeverría, María L., Alonso, Sara I. & Comparatore, Viviana M., 2017, Survey of the vascular plants of Sierra Chica, the untouched area of the Paititi Natural Reserve (southeastern Tandilia mountain range, Buenos Aires province, Argentina), Check List 13 (6), pp. 1003-1036 : 1024

Colletia paradoxa (Spreng.) Escalante

Figure 28A–C

Colletia paradoxa (Spreng.) Escalante (1946) : 219 — Cabrera (1965a):

163; Tortosa (1995): 4; Flora Argentina (2017); Tropicos (2017).

Condalia paradoxa Sprengel (1825a) : 825.

Colletia cruciata Gillies & Hooker (1829) : 152.

Phanerophytes; native with wide distribution in the Southern Cone Region of South America. Least Concern ( Delucchi 2006).

Characteristics. Rhizomatous, glaucous shrub, to 3 m tall. Spines triangular, compressed, decussate, without marked leaf nodes. Leaves ovate–lanceolate, to 7 mm long, promptly deciduous. Inflorescence: fascicle with 2–9 flowers. Flowers white, ca 1 cm long; sepals oblong-lanceolate, reflexes; corolla absent. Fruit: 3-locu- lar capsule.

Comments. This is a very frequent species in the study area. It grows in intermediate and full sunlight conditions on grasslands and on slopes in moderately deep, moist soils. It also grows under the trees and in cracks of the slopes and summit. This species could be confused with other Rhamnaceae that are frequently found in the mountain ranges of Buenos Aires province: Colletia spinosissima J. F. Gmel. and Discaria americana Gillies & Hook. These species differ from C. paradoxa in vegetative morphologic characters. Colletia spinosissima has dark yellowish-green branches and cylindrical spines ( Fig. 28D), while D. americana has leaf nodes with a transversal mark ( Tortosa 1995).

Superorder Caryophyllanae

Order Caryophyllales : Family Cactaceae : Tribe Trichocereeae