Tara Molina, Saggio Chili: 283. 1789.
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https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.240.101716 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/27528258-9C7E-42D1-4F3D-C041F26D2112 |
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scientific name |
Tara Molina, Saggio Chili: 283. 1789. |
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Tara Molina, Saggio Chili: 283. 1789. View in CoL
Figs 35 View Figure 35 , 57 View Figure 57
Nicarago Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23(5): 319. 1930. Type: Nicarago vesicaria (L.) Britton & Rose [≡ Caesalpinia vesicaria L. (≡ Tara vesicaria (L.) Molinari, Sánchez Och. & Mayta)]
Russellodendron Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23(5): 320. 1930. Type: Russellodedron cacalaco (Bonpl.) Britton & Rose [≡ Caesalpinia cacalaco Bonpl. (≡ Tara cacalaco (Bonpl.) Molinari & Sánchez Och.)]
Type.
Tara tinctoria Molina [= Tara spinosa (Molina) Britton & Rose]
Description.
Shrubs or trees, armed with deflexed prickles. Stipules minute, deltate-lanceolate, caducous, or lacking. Leaves bipinnate, ending with a pair of pinnae, sometimes armed with prickles at the base of the pinnae and leaflets; pinnae in 2-5 opposite pairs; leaflets 1-8 opposite pairs per pinna. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary raceme or panicle. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic; hypanthium persistent as a shallow cup at the pedicel apex or abscising as a narrow free ring as the fruit matures; sepals 5, eglandular, caducous, lower sepal cucullate covering the other 4 sepals in bud, with a pectinate, fimbriate or entire margin; petals 5, free, yellow, the median petal with red markings; stamens 10, free, the filaments pubescent, eglandular; ovary puberulent to glabrescent. Fruit an indehiscent legume, straight, oblong, laterally compressed, slightly turgid and somewhat fleshy, coriaceous. Seeds ellipsoid, brown, shiny.
Chromosome number.
2 n = 24 (all three species) ( Mata-Sucre et al. 2020).
Included species and geographic distribution.
Three species, one in South America ( T. spinosa , which occurs from central and south-western Colombia through Ecuador and Peru into Bolivia), one in Mexico [ T. cacalaco (Bonpl.) Molinari & Sánchez Och.] and one in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and extending into the Caribbean [ T. vesicaria (L.) Molinari, Sánchez Och. & Mayta] (Fig. 57 View Figure 57 ).
Ecology.
Seasonally dry tropical forests to semi-arid thorn scrubs.
Etymology.
Derived from the vernacular name ‘tara’ in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile.
Human uses.
Tara spinosa is widely cultivated across the tropics and subtropics (including in the Canary Islands) as a source of tannins, gums and firewood, and occasionally as an ornamental ( Lewis 2005b).
Notes.
As originally described by Molina, the genus Tara contained a single binomial. The genus Coulteria , as described by Kunth (1824), contained three species, one, C. mollis , designated as the type of Coulteria , the other two clearly shown to be more closely related to the type species of Tara ( Gagnon et al. 2013, 2016). Based on Gagnon et al. (2013), Molinari-Novoa and Sánchez Ocharan (2016a) transferred Caesalpinia cacalaco and Caesalpinia vesicaria to the genus Tara .
Taxonomic references.
Barreto Valdés (2013); Britton and Rose (1930); Gagnon et al. (2016); Lewis (2005b); Macbride (1943, as Caesalpinia spinosa ); Molinari-Novoa and Sánchez Ocharan (2016); Sprague (1931); Ulibarri (1996).
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