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Name

Mariosousa centralis (Britton & Rose) Seigler & Ebinger

Synonymy and types

Acacia centralis (Britton & Rose) Lundell, Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 4:7.  1940. - Senegalia centralis Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23:113. 1928. -  TYPE: El Salvador, near San Salvador, 1923, S.Calderon 1774 (holotype:  NY!, isotypes: BM!, F!).

Formal description

Tree to 25 m tall.  Bark dark grayish brown, vertically fissured, rough and scaling.  Twigs light brown to greenish brown, not flexuous, mostly glabrous.  Short shoots absent.  Leaves alternate, 70-180 mm long.  Stipules herbaceous, light brown, narrowly linear, to 4.5 x 0.6 mm wide near the base, glabrous, persistent.  Petiole adaxially shallowly grooved, 18-46 mm long, glabrous to lightly puberulent; petiole gland solitary, located on the middle part of the petiole, sessile, usually circular, 1.0-2.6 mm across, saucer-shaped to cup-shaped, glabrous.  Rachis adaxially grooved, 40-150 mm long, glabrous to puberulent, a sessile, saucer-shaped to doughnut-shaped gland, 0.6-1.3 mm across, between the pinnae of the upper 1 to 2 pinna pairs.  Pinnae (7)11 to 24 pairs per leaf, 30-70 mm long, 3-9 mm between pinna pairs.  Petiolules 0.8-1.5 mm long.  Leaflets 40 to 60 pairs per pinna, opposite, 0.5-1.2 mm between leaflets, linear, 3.0-5.5 x 0.6-1.1 mm, glabrous except for usually some long hairs at the base beneath, lateral veins obvious, a midvein and 1 to 2 smaller veins from the base, base oblique, margins ciliate, apex narrowly acute to acuminate.  Inflorescence a loosely flowered cylindrical spike 60-140 mm long, 1 to 3 from the leaf axil, or in terminal racemose clusters.  Peduncle 4-10 x 0.5-1.0 mm, glabrous to lightly puberulent.   Involucre absent.  Floral bracts linear, to 1 mm long, pubescent, early deciduous.  Flowers sessile, creamy-white; calyx 5-lobed, 0.7-1.3 mm long, lightly appressed pubescent; corolla 5-lobed, 1.8-2.5 mm long, lightly appressed pubescent; stamen filaments 4.5-6.5 mm long, distinct; ovary glabrous, on a stipe to 0.3 mm long.  Legumes light brown, straight, flattened, not constricted between the seeds, oblong, 100-160 x 16-28 mm, cartilaginois, transversely striate, glabrous, eglandular, dehiscent along both sutures; stipe to 20 mm long; apex broadly acute to obtuse and usually apiculate.  Seeds uniseriate, no pulp, dark reddish-brown, nearly circular, strongly flattened, 6-9 mm across, smooth; pleurogram U-shaped, 1.5-3.0 mm across.    Flowers: April-August, and sporadically throughout the year when moisture is available.  Chromosome number: Not determined.

Distribution

Lowland forests, and moist disturbed sites below 1300 m in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the states of Chiapas, Jalisco, Oaxaca, and Sinaloa,  Mexico.

Additional info

A tall tree, sometimes entering the canopy of moist lowland forests, Mariosousa centralis is also a common component of disturbed habitats at lower elevation through most of Central America. Most collections are from roadsides, disturbed pastures, and gallery forests.  In addition to its close morphologically similarity to M. acatlensis discussed above, M. centralis is also sympatric with five other species of the genus in southern Mexico.  Of these, it is easily separated from M. compacta and M. mammifera, as these species have fewer pinna pairs on a leaf (less than 7) and fewer leaflets per pinna (less than 36).  The erect hairs of M. sericea, the larger leaflets of M. usumacintensis, and the exfoliating bark of M. salazari can be used to distinguish these species from M. centralis.

The authors have encountered numerous specimens of M. centralis annotated Albizia niopoides (Bentham) Burkart. Flowering material of these two taxa is easily separated by the filament-tube and fewer stamens in Albizia.  Fruiting material and sterile specimens also can be separated, as in M. centralis, the leaflets are less than 5.5 mm long and have an acuminate apex, whereas in Albizia niopoides, the leaflets are longer, mostly more than 5.5 mm long, and the apex is broadly acute to obtuse.

Flowering time

April-August.

Representative specimens

COSTA RICA:

Guanacaste:

Puntarenas:

EL SALVADOR:

GUATEMALA:

Petén:

Solola:

HONDURAS:

Francisco Morazán:

Olancho:

Paraiso:

MEXICO:

Chiapas:

Jalisco:

Oaxaca:

Sinaloa:

NICARAGUA:

Carazo:

León:

Managua:

Masaya:

Matagalpa:

Nuevo Segovia:

Rivas:

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