Bolivian Mimosa (Leguminosae, Mimosoideae): three new species and a species checklist
Author
Margoth Atahuachi
Author
M. Leontien Van Der Bent
Author
John R. I. Wood
Author
Gwilym P. Lewis
Author
Colin E. Hughes
text
Phytotaxa
2016
2016-05-13
260
3
201
222
journal article
10.11646/phytotaxa.260.3.1
42186781-dd9d-418a-ba65-05680906269a
1179-3163
192175
31.
Mimosa orbignyana
Barneby
This species has remained poorly understood, known only from the
type
collection (
díOrbigny 743
P,
Bolivia
, Chiquitos,
August 1831
), and apparently never re-collected since, until very recently. It was described by
Barneby (1991)
as
‘in unknown habitat, but to be sought in campo or cerrado at or above
700 m
on the Sierra de Santiago, near
18° 30´S
in south-east
Santa Cruz
, Boliviaí
and has been considered endemic to
Bolivia
. Within the last two years, two collections, both from further north, on the Serranía Huanchaca have been made (
J.R.I. Wood 26772
, LPB, K, USZ, from the southwest part of the meseta of the Serranía Huanchaca in the Noel Kempf National Park in
Bolivia
, and
L. Borges 787
, UB, from the southern end of the Huanchaca range in neighbouring
Mato Grosso
in
Brazil
, where the range is known as the Serra do Ricardo Franco). However, despite extensive fieldwork in areas where d’Orbigny is likely to have visited in ‘Chiquitos’, no material matching this species has been re-collected from any of these areas. This is perhaps surprising, given that
M. orbignyana
forms a substantial shrub to
2 m
height, multi-stemmed from the base, resprouting after fire from an underground woody root system that is much thicker than the above-ground stems, and with conspicuous
1–1.2 m
tall efoliate pseudoracemes of bright pink flowers (
Figs. 6
&
7
).
Barneby (1991)
placed
M. orbignyana
in his ser.
Setosae
of sect.
Habbasia
and indicated likely affinities to
M. riedelii
Benth. from the Chapada dos Guimar„es in
Mato Grosso
and
M. aguapeia
Barneby from the Serra do Aguapei also in
Mato Grosso
. These overall affinities are confirmed by analysis of a
trnD -trnT
sequence of
M. orbignyana
as sister to a clade comprising ser.
Setosae
and ser.
Pachycarpae
(clade O in
Simon
et al
. (2011
)) plus
M. corynadenia
(
Fig. 1
). Although no sequence data are available yet for
M. riedelii
and
M. aguapeia
, the discovery of
M. orbignyana
in the Serranía Huanchaca confirms Barneby’s notion that these three potentially closely allied species occupy disjunct ranges on these ancient sandstone chapadas around the periphery of the upper Rio
Paraguay
basin.