Sphinga Barneby & J.W. Grimes, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74(1): 160. 1996.

Bruneau, Anne, de Queiroz, Luciano Paganucci, Ringelberg, Jens J., Borges, Leonardo M., Bortoluzzi, Roseli Lopes da Costa, Brown, Gillian K., Cardoso, Domingos B. O. S., Clark, Ruth P., Conceicao, Adilva de Souza, Cota, Matheus Martins Teixeira, Demeulenaere, Else, de Stefano, Rodrigo Duno, Ebinger, John E., Ferm, Julia, Fonseca-Cortes, Andres, Gagnon, Edeline, Grether, Rosaura, Guerra, Ethiene, Haston, Elspeth, Herendeen, Patrick S., Hernandez, Hector M., Hopkins, Helen C. F., Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau, Hughes, Colin E., Ickert-Bond, Stefanie M., Iganci, Joao, Koenen, Erik J. M., Lewis, Gwilym P., de Lima, Haroldo Cavalcante, de Lima, Alexandre Gibau, Luckow, Melissa, Marazzi, Brigitte, Maslin, Bruce R., Morales, Matias, Morim, Marli Pires, Murphy, Daniel J., O'Donnell, Shawn A., Oliveira, Filipe Gomes, Oliveira, Ana Carla da Silva, Rando, Juliana Gastaldello, Ribeiro, Petala Gomes, Ribeiro, Carolina Lima, Santos, Felipe da Silva, Seigler, David S., da Silva, Guilherme Sousa, Simon, Marcelo F., Soares, Marcos Vinicius Batista & Terra, Vanessa, 2024, Advances in Legume Systematics 14. Classification of Caesalpinioideae. Part 2: Higher-level classification, PhytoKeys 240, pp. 1-552 : 1

Sphinga Barneby & J.W. Grimes, Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 74(1): 160. 1996.

Figs 217 , 219

Type.

Sphinga platyloba (DC.) Barneby & J.W. Grimes [≡ Acacia platyloba DC.]

Description.

Shrubs and small trees, sometimes sarmentose. Stipules subulate, spinescent. Leaves bipinnate, extrafloral nectaries below mid-petiole; pinnae 1-4 pairs; leaflets 1-14 pairs per pinna, opposite, obovate or oblong-obovate, venation pinnate or subpalmate. Inflorescences capitula, all or almost all arising from brachyblasts. Flowers sessile or nearly so, homomorphic, 5-merous, the perianth greatly elongated, flower-buds flask-shaped; calyx cylindrical-campanulate; corolla narrowly trumpet-shaped; stamens 34-176, the tube greatly elongated and far exserted; pollen in 16-celled polyads, more or less isodiametric; intrastaminal disc clasping stipe of ovary; ovary cylindrical. Fruits broad-linear, plano-compressed legumes, 6-10-seeded, the stiffly papery valves framed by sutures, the cavity continuous, dehiscent through both sutures. Seeds transverse on a dilated, contorted or sigmoid funicle.

Chromosome number.

2 n = 26 (Rico Arce 1992).

Included species and geographic distribution.

Three species, south-central Mexico, sporadically in Central America (Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua), to northern South America (Colombia, Venezuela), and Aruba, Curaçao (Dutch West Indies), and one species endemic to Cuba (Fig. 219 ).

Ecology.

Arid or seasonally dry tropical forest, mattoral and thorn scrub, to 1600 m elevation in south-central Mexico. Night-flowering and pollinated by Sphingid moths.

Etymology.

Sphinx ( Sphingidae ), the putative pollinator + Tupi Sphinx inga , vernacular for several mimosoid legumes ( Barneby and Grimes 1996).

Human uses.

Unknown.

Notes.

The three species of Sphinga were all known to Bentham (1875) and grouped into an informal division of his Pithecolobium sect. Ortholobium . Britton and Rose (1928) later transferred them to Havardia . Barneby and Grimes (1996) proposed the new genus Sphinga for these three species, which differ from Havardia in the greatly elongated perianth with a long, silky corolla opening at nightfall.

Taxonomic references.

Barneby and Grimes (1996); Britton and Rose (1928); Tamayo-Cen et al. (2022).

Figures

Figure 217. Morphology of selected species of the Pithecellobium clade A Ebenopsis ebano (Berland.) Barneby & J. W. Grimes, fruit B, C Havardia albicans (Kunth) Britton & Rose B leaves C inflorescence D Gretheria campylacantha (L. Rico & M. Sousa) Duno & Torke, fruit E Ricoa leptophylla (DC.) Duno & Torke, inflorescence and young flowers F Painteria elachistophylla (A. Gray ex S. Watson) Britton & Rose, fruit G Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth. habit H Pithecellobium unguis-cati (L.) Benth. inflorescence I Pithecellobium lanceolatum (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Benth. pod and seeds J Pithecellobium winzerlingii Britton & Rose pod and seed K Sphinga acatlensis (Benth.) Barneby & J. W. Grimes flowers L Sphinga platyloba (Bertero ex DC.) Barneby & J. W. Grimes flowers. Photo credits A, E, F, H R Duno de Stefano B, C, J GA Romero Gonzalez D, I, K CE Hughes G D Pedersen L C Ramirez.

Figure 219. Distribution of Sphinga based on quality-controlled digitised herbarium records. See Suppl. material 1 for the source of occurrence data.