Name

Acaciella painteri  Britton & Rose var. painteri.

Rico Arce & Bachman
Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid
Vol. 63(2): 189-244
July-December 2006

Formal description

Shrub to 5 m tall, densely white-pubescent on the  very young stems. Stipules fugacious, not seen. Leaves  5-15(18) cm long; petiole 2-4.5 cm long, slightly channelled,  usually pubescent; rachis 1-3 cm long, glabrescent  to shortly adpressed-hairy; with 3-9 pairs of pinnae;  pinnae 4-5.5(8) cm long; with paraphyllidia c. 1  mm long; leaflets (25)34-40(58) pairs per pinna, 4.5-7  (12) × 1.2-1.5(3) mm, linear-oblong, chartaceous,  base oblique, apex rounded-acute, venation brochidodromous,  with a very sunken venation on the undersurface,  usually glabrous, sometimes slightly pubescent  along the base of the midvein, margins very  short-ciliate. Inflorescences consisting of axillary and  terminal racemes, main rachis 8.5-25 cm long, densely  white-pubescent; peduncle 0.7-1 cm long; glabrous  or glabrescent, without pearl glands; with 1-2 bracts,  the first 2 mm long, at the peduncle base, the second  1 mm long on the middle of the peduncle, sometimes  pubescent, linear, fugacious; floral bract 0.5 mm long,  pubescent, clavate, fugacious; pedicels 0.7-1 mm  long, glabrous; flowers white, dark orange when dry;  in short capitulum-like racemes 0.7-12 mm in diam. at  anthesis. Calyx 1 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes less than  ¼ the length of the whole calyx, glabrous. Corolla 2.3-  2.5 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes to more than half the  whole corolla length, glabrous. Stamens 4.5 mm long.  Ovary 1.2 mm long, glabrous, short-stipitate, the stipe  shorter than the ovary; basal nectary 0.3-0.4 mm high.  Legume (3.7)4(5) × 0.7-0.9 × 0.2-0.3 cm, flat, straight,  dehiscent; valves membranaceous, conspicuously  reticulate, sparsely white-pubescent, acute at the base  and apex; stipe 0.6-1.5 cm long; beak present, 2 mm  long. Seeds 8 per fruit, spherical, circular in outline,  3.5-4.5 × 3.5-4.5 × 1.5-2 mm.

Distribution

Mexico central: Guerrero, Jalisco,  Edo. Mexico, Michoacan, Nayarit and Zacatecas  states.

Additional info

Habitat. Dry scrubland and low deciduous forest,  less frequent in Quercus and mixed Pinus-Quercus  forest. Alt. 50-1750 m.

Key to varieties of Acaciella painteri
 
1. Twigs, rachises and petioles with short, sparse strigulose  hairs, sometimes hirsute, but not yellow-hirsute; restricted to  Jalisco and Nayarit states in SW Mexico ... var. painteri 
1. Twigs glabrous or very sparsely puberulous; plants with a  wider distribution in Central and Southwest Mexico ... var. houghii 

Flowering time

Flowering from August to October,  fruiting August to November.

Representative specimens

MEXICO:

Jalisco:

• Puente San Pedro, 5 m SW of Tecatitlan,  1200 m, 22-IX-1958, McVaugh 18094 (MEXU);
• 3 m S of la Huerta,  road to Barra de Navidad, 500 m, 3-X-1960, McVaugh 19797  (MEXU);
• Cerro del Palacio, 4-5 km al WSW de Tuxcacuesco, 19º  40'27'' N, 104º 00'46'' W, 1100 m, 21-X-1996, Santana, F.J. 7876  (MEXU).

 México:

• El Zapote, Carr. Tejupilco-Bejucos, 1000 m,  20-X-1978, Guizar N., E. 239 (MEXU).

Michoacán:

• San José Purúa,  3-X-1964, González Q., L. 1728 (MEXU);
• Coalcomán, 18º 47'  N, 103º 09' W, 1000 m, 24-X-1938, Hinton, G.B. 12453 (K);
• 2 km  S of Ario de Rosales, 19º 11'60'' N, 101º 43' W, 1824 m, 31-XII-  1977, Soto, J.C. 575 (MEXU).

Nayarit:

• 1.5 m W of Mazatlan on  road to Las Varas, 600 m, 27-VIII-1959, Feddema, C. 1062  (MEXU);
• 10 km al E de El Venado o a 1 km al E de Real del Zopilote,  camino a San Miguel Zapote, 10-IX-1985, Téllez, O. 9196  (MEXU).

Zacatecas:

• km 85 carr. Zacatecas-Guadalajara, 8-X-  1992, Enríquez E., D. 275 (MEXU).

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