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Name

Vachellia roigii (León) Seigler & Ebinger, Phytologia  87:  166.  2005.
syn.  Acacia roigii León in León and Alain, Contr. Ocas. Mus. Hist. Nat. Colegio "De La Salle" 9:  7.  1950.

Synonymy and types

Basionym:  Acacia roigii León in León and Alain, Contr. Ocas. Mus. Hist. Nat. Colegio "De La Salle"  9: 7.  1950. - TYPE:  CUBA.  LAS TUNAS:  Puerto Padre, yanales de El Cupey, 28 Feb 1930, M. Curbelo 290 [holotype: HAC -Herb. J. Roig 5077 (Bässler 1998); isotype:  HAC (Alvarez and Oliver 1991)].

Formal description

Tree to 4 m tall.  Bark unknown.  Twigs gray to reddish-brown, slightly flexuous, lightly puberulent.  Short shoots present above the stipular spines, to 3 mm long, covered with acuminate stipules and old leaf bases, enclosed by a few indurate,  triangular bracts. Leaves alternate, also commonly clustered on the short shoots, 0.3-2.5 mm long.  Stipular spines reddish-brown, becoming gray with age, symmetrical, terete, straight, aciculate, to 22.0 x 0.8 mm near the base, glabrous.  Petiole adaxially grooved, 0.3-2.5 mm long, glabrous; petiolar gland solitary, located just below the first pinna pair, columnar, 0.2-0.7 mm long, the apex circular, 0.1-0.3 mm across, glabrous, depressed.  Rachis absent.  Pinnae 1 pair per leaf, 1.0-4.5 mm long.  Petiolules 1.0-4.5 mm long.  Leaflets 1 (rarely 2) pair per pinna, opposite, 1.5-2.0 mm between leaflets, obovate, 7-11 x 2-5 mm, glabrous, lateral veins obvious, one vein from the base, coriaceous, base oblique, margins not ciliate, apex obtuse and emarginate to truncate.  Inflorescence a densely flowered globose to subglobose head, 5-6 mm across, solitary or occasionally paired, from the short hoots.  Pedicels 5-18 x 0.4-0.9 mm, puberulent.  Involucre 4- to 5-lobed, located 1-3 mm below the base of the head, lightly puberulent, persistent.  Floral bracts spatulate, 0.2-0.4 mm long, sparsely puberulent, more or less persistent. Flowers unknown. Legumes light reddish-brown, slightly curved, elliptic in cross section, not constricted between the seeds, oblong, 30-45 x 8-11 mm, chartaceous, not striate, glabrous and lustrous, eglandular, tardily dehiscent along the ventral suture; stipe 4-7 mm long; apex obtuse, apiculate.  Seeds uniseriate, surrounded by a white pulp, brown to reddish-brown, irregularly ellipsoid to ovoid, slightly flattened, 3.9-4.4 x 3.2-3.7 mm, smooth; pleurogram oval, 1.6-2.5 across.  Flowers unknown.  Chromosome number: unknown.

Distribution

Found at low elevations where it forms the canopy layer of scrub-thorn vegetation in Las Tunas Provinces.

Additional info

Only one collection of this species has been examined by the authors, a relatively recent collection from Las Tunas Province.  This material fits the original description in all details except for the petiolar gland which is columnar and has a depressed apex 0.1-0.3 mm across.  León and Alain (1950) describe the petiolar gland as round, cupular, and 0.7-0.8 mm in diameter.  The type of V. roigii was collected at the same locality as V. cupeyensis (a synonym of V. polyprigenes).  It is not known whether V. roigii is edaphically specialized.  León and Alain (1950) stated that Vachellia roigii most closely resembles V. anegadensis, a species restricted to the island of Anegada, British Virgin Islands.  There is a strong superficial resemblance between the taxa; both have few leaflet pairs per pinna and the leaflets are relatively large, lustrous, and coriaceous.  Both also have conspicuous secondary veins on the underside of the leaflets, but the conspicuous eucamptodromous venation of A. anegadensis is missing in A. roigii.

Representative specimens

CUBA:

Las Tunas Province: 


 

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