Calliandra surinamensis Benth., Fabaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Risk assessment results:  Low risk, score: -4 (Go to the risk assessment)

Other Latin names:  Calliandra tenuiflora Benth.

Common name(s): [more details]

English: Surinam powderpuff, Surinamese stickpea, pink powder puff

French: pompon de marin

Habit:  shrub/tree

Description:  "Low bushy but potentially arborescent shrubs with plagiotropic long-shoots, flowering at (0.7-) 1.5-6 (-10, -12) m, at maturity with flat or asymetrically tilted crown, heteromorphic in number, size and outline of leaflets and in composition of capitula, the young branchlets, leaf-axes (either all around or only ventrally) and peduncles either thinly or densely pilosulous with pallid or sordid, either erect, incurved-ascending or subappressed hairs to 0.1-0.5 (-0.7) mm, the annotinous and older branches glabrate blanched, the chartaceous (when young submembranous) leaflets ± bicolored, lustrous and commonly glabrous (exceptionally papillate or thinly minutely puberulent) on both faces, ciliolate or not, the capitula arising singly from nearly always efoliate nodes of brachyblasts axillary to coeval or lately shed primary leaves of long-shoots, the androecia bicolored, pallid proximally, rose-carmine distally; phyllotaxy distichous.  Stipules lanceolate from ± dilated base or less often ovate-triangular, mostly glabrous dorsally, those subtending primary leaves (1.5-) 3-11 (-16) x (0.8-) 1-2.7 (-3) mm, 8-19-nerved when young, becoming dry, pallid, brittle in age, those of brachyblasts mostly shorter.  Leaf-formula i/5-7, 6-9, 8-19 (-25), the leaflets when relatively numerous tending to be more crowded but whether few or many equally variable in outline; petioles including pulvinus and dilated apex 2-9 (-11) mm, at middle 0.5-1.3 mm diameter, shallowly grooved ventrally; rachis of longer pinnae (3.5-) 4-9 (-11) cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (2-) 2.3-12 (-21) mm; leaflet-pulvinules 0.2-0.6 x 0.5-1 mm; leaflets either decrescent toward base of rachis and thence equilong, or decrescent also distally, or accrescent from base upward, the furthest pair often longer and proportionately narrower than the penultimate one, the blades varying from linear-lanceolate and straight or almost so to lance-oblong, oblong, or rhombic-oblong (and often subsigmoid or subfalcate) from semicordate or shortly auriculate base, at apex obtuse, obtuse apiculate, or deltately acute, the penultimate pair (7.5-) 8.5-25 x (1.8-) 2-145 (-18) mm, (1.5-) 1.8-5 (-5.3) times as long as wide; venation palmate-pinnate, the midrib of narrower leaflets subcentric, of broader ones displaced to dived blad ± 1:1.5, or that of relatively short and broad ones subdiagonal, the inner of 3-4 posterior primary nerves incurved-ascending nearly to or shortly beyond midblade, the secondary and reticular venules finely sharply prominulous on both faces or sometimes nearly immersed on upper.  Peduncles 0.7-2 cm, randomly to 2-4 (-4.5) cm, 1 (-2)-bracteate, the bract near or below middle; capitula (6-) 8-21 (-26)-fid, the receptacle 1.5-3.5 mm diameter; bracts narrow-ovate, subulate, or narrowly lanceolate, 0.5-2.3 mm, 1-4-nerved, persistent; flowers of capitulum subhomomorphic as to perianth (that of subterminal flowers sometimes a little wider) but either homomorphic or heteromorphic as to androecia, these potentially of 3 sorts, with tubes: a) scarcely exserted, b) long-exserted and narrowly tubular, or c) long-exserted and dilated into a funnel up to ± 4 mm diameter at orifice; pedicels (sometimes scarcely differentiated externally) 0.2-0.8 x 0.4-1 mm; perianth (3-) 4-5-merous, most often glabrous but sometimes minutely puberulent or thinly strigulose, the calyx sharply striate, the membranous, greenish-white or reddish corolla not so; calyx (1.5-) 1.8-3.2 (-3.4) x 0.9-1.4 (-1.7) mm, the depressed-ovate obtuse or triangular-subulate acute teeth 0.15-1 mm; corolla (5-) 5.4-10.5 (-11.4) mm, the ovate or lance-ovate lobes (0.6-) 0.8-2.4 (-3.3) mm; androecium 24-48 (-52) mm, (11-) 12-26 (-34)-merous, the tube 7.5-17.5 (-21) mm; peripheral flowers either staminate or bisexual, lacking disc, some differentiated distal flowers staminate or neuter, with disc; ovary at anthesis glabrous, often pubescent after fertilization.  Pods stiffly ascending on thickened peduncles, in broad profile 4.5-11 (-11.5) x 0.7-1.3 (-1.4) cm, the sutures to 3 mm wide in dorsal view, the stiffly leathery, obliquely (subvertically) venulose, dark brown nigrescent valves either glabrous or brownish-puberulent, the inner face of the sutures revealed at dehiscence 0.85-1.25 mm wide; seeds in broad view 7.5-10.5 x 0.45-0.7 mm, the smooth brown testa sometimes darker-speckled, lacking pleurogram" (Barneby, 1998; pp. 76-77).

"Spreading shrub or small tree about 2 m high (up to 6 m elsewhere). It has leaves with short petioles 6-15 mm long and 1 (infrequently 2 or 3) pair of pinnae, these 3-7 cm long and with 7-10 pairs of leaflets 10-17 x 3-5 mm. The flowers are sessile in showy heads, the calyx and corolla are green to yellowish, the filament tube is white, and the free parts of filaments are red to crimson. The fruits are oblong from a narrow base, thick-margined, 7-10.5 cm long, and 8-13 mm broad" (Smith, 1985; p. 81).

Habitat/ecology:  "Open places in savanna, brush-woodland, and disturbed moist forest, especially abundant and colonial along rocky riverbanks and on islands in river rapids, mostly between 5 and 450 m but attaining 1200 m on the Gran Sabana in Venezuelan Guayana, 650 m in pre-Andean Ecuador, and 1440 m in n. Colombia" (Barneby, 1998; pp. 76-77).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Northern South America (Barneby, 1998; pp. 76-77).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Cook Islands Southern Cook Islands	Rarotonga Island	introduced cultivated	Space, James C./Flynn, Tim (2002) (p. 64)
Federated States of Micronesia Pohnpei Islands	Pohnpei Island	introduced cultivated	Herrera, Katherine/Lorence, David H./Flynn, Timothy/Balick, Michael J. (2010) (p. 89) Vouchers cited: D.H. Lorence 9964 (PTBG), S. Perlman 21403 (PTBG)
Fiji Fiji Islands	Viti Levu Island	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (p. 81) Voucher cited: DA 12159. Present status unknown.
French Polynesia Gambier Islands	Mangareva (Gambier) Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2013) Cultivée
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Hiva Oa Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Wagner, Warren L. (2013)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Ua Huka (Huahuna, Uahuka) Island	introduced cultivated	Lorence, David H./Wagner, Warren L. (2013)
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Ua Huka (Huahuna, Uahuka) Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2013) Voucher cited: L. Dunn 404 (PAP) Cultivée
French Polynesia Marquesas Islands	Ua Huka (Huahuna, Uahuka) Island		National Tropical Botanical Garden (U.S.A. Hawaii. Kalaheo.) (2003) (voucher ID: PTBG 40921) Taxon name on voucher: Calliandra surinamensis
French Polynesia Society Islands	Raiatea (Havai) Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 141)
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced cultivated	Welsh, S. L. (1998) (p. 141) Vouchers cited: Florence 2404, BRY 25464, BRY 25723
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island	introduced cultivated	Florence, J./Chevillotte, H./Ollier, C./Meyer, J.-Y. (2013) Voucher cited: J. Florence 2404 (PAP) Ornementale assez commune à Tahiti.
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island		Bishop Museum (Honolulu) (1982) (voucher ID: BISH 493037) Taxon name on voucher: Calliandra surinamensis Benth.
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island		Bishop Museum (Honolulu) (1982) (voucher ID: BISH 660690) Taxon name on voucher: Calliandra surinamensis Benth.
French Polynesia Society Islands	Tahiti Island		Bishop Museum (Honolulu) (1982) (voucher ID: BISH 660691) Taxon name on voucher: Calliandra surinamensis Benth.
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Kaua‘i Island	introduced cultivated	Imada, Clyde T./Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral R. (2013) (p. Voucher specimens) Voucher cited: Herbst 5695 (BISH 415741)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Maui Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Starr, Forest/Starr, Kim (2011) (p. 26) West Maui. Voucher cited: Starr & Starr 090708-02 (BISH)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	O‘ahu Island	introduced cultivated	Imada, Clyde T./Staples, George W./Herbst, Derral R. (2013) (p. Voucher specimens) Voucher cited: Neal s.n. (BISH 54866)
New Caledonia New Caledonia Archipelago	Île Grande Terre	introduced cultivated	MacKee, H. S. (1994) (p. 77) Vouchers cited: Goy in MacKee 28335, MacKee 38929
New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea) New Guinea Island	New Guinea Island	introduced cultivated	Australian Biological Resources Study (2013)
Palau Palau (Belau ) (main island group)	Koror (Oreor) Island	introduced cultivated	Space, James C./Lorence, David H./LaRosa, Anne Marie (2009) (p. 6)
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	Papua New Guinea (eastern New Guinea Island)	introduced cultivated	Smith, Albert C. (1985) (p. 81)
Samoa Western Samoa Islands	Savai‘i Island	introduced cultivated	Space, James C./Flynn, Tim (2002) (p. 69)
Samoa Western Samoa Islands	Upolu Island	introduced cultivated	Space, James C./Flynn, Tim (2002) (p. 65)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Queensland	introduced invasive	Australian Biological Resources Study (2013) "Known by only a single collection in Australia, where it was found in disturbed eucalypt-dominated open forest near Mackay, eastern Queensland".
Singapore Singapore	Singapore (Republic of)	introduced invasive	Chong, Kwek Yan/Tan, Hugh T. W./Corlett, Richard T. (2009) (p. 22) Casual
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Colombia	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Perú (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)

Indian Ocean
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Mauritius Mautitius Islands (Mauritius and Rodrigues)	Mauritius Island	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2013)
Seychelles Seychelles Islands	Seychelles Islands	introduced	ILDIS Co-ordinating Centre (2013)
Seychelles Seychelles Islands	Seychelles Islands	introduced	Invasive Species Specialist Group (2017)

Comments:  Reported to be potential invader in Fiji (Meyer, 2000; p. 92).

Control:  If you know of control methods for Calliandra surinamensis, please let us know.