Chamaecrista deeringiana

Weakley, Alan S., Poindexter, Derick B., Medford, Hannah C., Franck, Alan R., Bradley, Keith A., Sadle, Jimi & Kelley, John Michael, 2021, Studies In The Vascular Flora Of The Southeastern United States. Vii, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 15 (1), pp. 23-56 : 44-47

Chamaecrista deeringiana is endemic to the pine rocklands of southern Florida (Miami-Dade Co.) . The species is distinguished by its perennial, horizontal roots usually bearing several main stems and the predominantly dark red to purple-red anthers. The horizontal roots so far measured from herbarium specimens do not exceed 20 cm long ( Franck 5278, FTG).Occasionally, the dark red to purple-red anthers of C. deeringiana can be yellow towards the base, as illustrated by Eaton (in Small 1919); in the protologue, Small and Pennell described the anthers as “yellow or reddish.”

Anther color is useful for identifying C. deeringiana in southern Florida, at least in live plants or recently collected herbarium specimens. Within the range of C. deeringiana , the anthers of C. fasciculata are only yellow to yellow-brown. As herbarium specimens age, the anthers darken in both taxa, making anther color difficult to discern. In addition, the leaflets of C. deeringiana seem to age to a dark red-brown color on herbarium specimens and have more pronounced, prominulous lateral veins on the lower surface, compared to the usually more greenish leaflets of C. fasciculata in Miami-Dade County with less pronounced, less prominulous lateral veins.

While the dark red to purple-red anthers of C. deeringiana are diagnostic locally, anther color ranges from yellow to purple-red in C. fasciculata . Pullen (1963) recognized eight entities at the rank of variety within C. fasciculata but several do not have valid varietal combinations in Chamaecrista (L.) Moench.Five of the entities had an anther color described as “mostly yellow grading through mixtures to occasionally red.” Only in two of Pullen’s entities (corresponding to C. ferrisiae Britton and C. rostrata Wooton & Standl. ) were the anthers described as merely “red” and in C. tracyi Pollard they were described as mostly yellow in the eastern part of its distribution and mostly red in the western part (Pullen 1963).

The anther colors of C.deeringiana are virtually identical to those of C. keyensis Pennell , which is similarly perennial and endemic to the pine rocklands of southern Florida. Curiously, the two species may be allopatric. The pine rocklands of the lower Florida Keys (e.g., Big Pine Key, Monroe Co.) host C. keyensis , while C. deeringana is found in the pine rocklands of mainland Miami-Dade County. There is one historic collection (Long & Andorfer 2824, USF) of C. keyensis allegedly from mainland Miami-Dade County (Brickell Hammock). It is not certain if C. deeringiana occurs in the Florida Keys of Monroe County. There is one collection (Lester 104, FTG) from Big Pine Key made in 1966 here tentatively identified as C. deeringiana ; the specimen is a solitary, unbranched stem that appears to have been removed from the base of the plant.

There is one historic collection (Small 3781, NY) of C. fasciculata made in 1912 from the pinelands of Big Pine Key that has been misidentified as C. deeringiana by Small, Pennell, and Irwin and Barneby ( Pennell 1917). Their identification appears to be solely reliant on the location and habitat. Only the distal portions of the stems are present on the specimen, which have been cleanly cut from the rest of the plant, probably because the plant was rather tall for a herbarium specimen, which would be typical of C. fasciculata . Chamaecrista deeringiana is a rather short plant usually with multiple basal stems that fits easily onto a typical herbarium sheet, and Small likely would have collected the entire aboveground portion (and sometimes the horizontal root), as done with his other specimens of C. deeringiana . This very old specimen (Small 3781) also has olive green leaflets, which is typical of old specimens of C. fasciculata . The leaflets of old specimens of C.deeringiana are rather consistently dark reddish. The Small 3781 specimen from Big Pine Key is still remarkable as the only known specimen of C. fasciculata from the Florida Keys of Monroe County. There is a similar specimen (Small & Carter 832, NY) of C. fasciculata from Miami-Dade County that was misidentified as C. deeringiana . Finally, there is a specimen presumably collected by John Loomis Blodgett of only one cutting identified by Pullen as C. fasciculata var. fasciculata , which only bears the note “Key West + Charlotte H.” (GH01852044); it is probably from Charlotte Harbor (Charlotte Co.), but that cannot be confirmed.

Possibly, one of the oldest collections of C. deeringiana is a specimen from the A.W. Chapman herbarium. It consists of two solitary, unbranched stems ca. 25–28 cm long, one of which is knobby at the base, as if removed from the base of the plant. The specimen appears consistent with C. deeringiana . Chapman did not collect in Miami-Dade County but he did travel along the southwest coast (e.g., Caxambas, Palm Cape; Chapman 1878) and is said to have visited Blodgett in Key West in 1843 ( Ledin 1953; Ward 2009). Chapman (1878) was familiar with many plants collected by Garber from Miami, and perhaps Garber is the source of this apparent specimen of C. deeringiana .

The name C. deeringiana has been misapplied frequently to plants of C. fasciculata in the Florida peninsula outside of Miami-Dade County (e.g., Pullen 1963; Irwin & Barneby 1982; Isely 1998), but none exhibit the characteristic horizontal perennial roots of C. deeringiana . Examples include specimens without roots (e.g., Martin Co., Beck s.n., FLAS) or those with taproots typical of C. fasciculata (e.g., Hendry Co., Beardsley s.n., FLAS); some are somewhat anomalous with numerous stems clustered at the base (Hernando Co., Kral 6821, GH, USF and Okeechobee County, McCart 10756, FLAS). McCart 10756 was collected from a roadside, so it is possible the plant had been previously mown. Pullen (1963) conducted extensive fieldwork in numerous counties throughout Florida, collecting several taxa of Chamaecrista , and yet he collected C. deeringiana only in Miami-Dade County and he collected C. horizontalis only in the counties cited for it below.

The chromosome number of C. deeringiana was determined to be n =8 (Pullen 1963). This same chromosome number was determined for seven of the eight entities of C. fasciculata treated by Pullen (1963).

Specimens examined: U.S. A. FLORIDA. Miami-Dade Co.: near Long Prairie, 24 Mar 1904, Britton 197 ( NY) ; between Homestead and Camp Jackson, May 1904, Small 1876 ( NY) ; near Murden Hammock , 22 Jun 1915, Small & Mosier 6435 ( FTG, NY) ; eastern end of Long Key , Everglades [mistakenly attributed to Monroe Co. by Pullen 1963], Apr 1917, Small 8124 ( US) ; W of Coconut Grove , 15 May 1918, Small 8787 ( DUKE, GH, NCU, TENN, US) ; Royal Palm State Park [mistakenly attributed to Collier Co. by Pullen 1963], 2 Feb 1928, Hawkins s.n. ( FLAS) ; Cutler , 21 Jul 1948, Woodbury s.n. ( FTG) ; near Long Pine Key , 22 Apr 1958, Traverse 575 ( GH) ; Richmond Naval Air Station , 5 May 1968, Owen s.n. ( FTG) ; Montgomery Foundation , 20 May 1969, Gillis 8068 ( FTG, GH, USF) ; Deering Estate , 27 May 1978, Correll & Popenoe 49828 ( FTG) ; Pine Shore Park , 2 Aug 1997, Bradley 617 ( FTG) ; Seminole Wayside Park , 20 Mar 1998, Woodmansee & Hoffman 38 ( FTG) ; Goulds Pineland , 7 Jun 1998, Bradley 1804 ( FTG) ; Rockdale Pineland , 16 Jul 1998, Bradley 1932 ( FTG) ; Navy Wells Pineland , 12 Aug 1992, Orzell & Bridges 20412 ( USF) ; Princeton , 12 Jul 2015, Franck 3928 ( USF) ; ibid., 17 Jan 2021, Franck 5108 ( FTG) ; ibid., 3 May 2021, Franck 5278 ( FTG) . Monroe Co.: Big Pine Key , 23 Apr 1966, Lester 104 ( FTG) . Unknown Co.: “Herb.Chapman” ( NY01453563 ) .