Dalea pringlei var. multijuga
Rupert C. Barneby
14b. Dalea pringlei var. multijuga Barneby
(Plate XXXVIII)
Characters as given in key; leaflets elliptic, all or all but the terminal one acute or subacute.— Collections: 12 (o).
Hot brushy hills, ascending on dry open ridges into the pine-oak belt, mostly 150— 1500 m (500-5000 ft), apparently local, foothills and piedmont of Sierra Madre Occidental on Rios Mayo and Verde in extreme s.-e. Sonora and adjoining Chihuahua, s. to Sierra Surutato in n. Sinaloa; an old record from the coast of Sonora at Guaymas to be confirmed. — Flowering October to March. —Representative: Sonora: Gentry 1097 (F), 1444 (F, UC), 4840 (ARIZ, NY), 4890 (ARIZ), 8009 (ARIZ, MEXU, MICH, UC), 8113 (MEXU, UC), 11,597 (MICH). Chihuahua: Goldman 239 (GH, NY). Sinaloa: Gentry 7165 (GH).
Dalea pringlei Gray var. multijuga (with many pairs of leaflets) Barneby, var. nov., a var. pringlei caulibus elatis valde pruinosis pallidis, foliolis numerosis foliorum majorum 12— 26-jugis, spicis majoribus elongatis, bracteisque dorso ultra mediam glabratis diversa. —Chihuahua: "Southwest Chihuahua," April-November 1885, Edward Palmer 241. —Holotypus, NY; isotypus, MEXU. — According to McVaugh, 1956, p. 91, 146, 310, the type-locality should be at Hacienda San Miguel near Batopilas, 27° 01' N, 107° 38' W, where var. multijuga was later encountered by E. A. Goldman.
The material of var. multijuga from Chihuahua has vivid magenta epistemonous petals like those of var. pringlei, whereas in the Rio Mayo region, in s. Sonora, they are white or faintly pink-tinged. It was for this reason, no doubt, that Gentry (1942, p. 138) misidentified several collections from Rio Mayo (Sierra La Chuna; Guajaray; Sierra de Alamos) as D. gravi, distinguishing the purple-flowered plant from Sierra Saguaribo (our var. oxyphyllidia) as probably distinct. Gentry records that both these tall, wandlike daleas are known in southern Sonora as Popote, the stems of var. multijuga being brought down from the hills for use as brooms.
While much of what is known of the range of var. multijuga is based on the superb and ample collections of H. S. Gentry, credit for its discovery goes back to the botanists of the Spanish Royal commission in New Spain, late in the XVIII century. Specimens of the purple-flowered type are found in the Sesse & Mocino herbarium (no. 2671, F, MA) under the epithet "microphylla", but apparently were not among the daleas sent to Lambert by Pavon and subsequently described by George Don. At least, I have not been able to associate any of the yet unidentified species of Don with D. pringlei.
Because the documented range of var. multijuga lies along the piedmont of the Sierra Madre, I am inclined to look with scepticism on the label of Palmer 667, ostensibly collected at Guaymas. McVaugh (1956, p. 323) records that Palmer made a trip inland from Guaymas to the Yaqui river in November-December 1869, and I speculate that the plant may actually have been encountered somewhere in the interior.
References: [Article] Barneby, Rupert C. 1977. Daleae Imagines, an illustrated revision of Errazurizia Philippi, Psorothamnus Rydberg, Marine Liebmann, and Dalea Lucanus emen. Barneby, including all species of Leguminosae tribe Amorpheae Borissova ever referred to Dalea. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 27: 1-892.Multimedia:
