Dalea confusa var. confusa

Rupert C. Barneby

23a.  Dalea confusa (Rydberg) Barneby var. confusa

(Plate XLV)

Characters as given in the key. — Collections: 2 (o).

Parkland in the pine belt, ± 2000 m, the habitat not recorded but to be sought in swales or low-lying meadows, known only from the headwaters of Rio Papigochic, high on the west slope of Sierra Madre in w.-centr. Chihuahua. — Flowering in September and October. —Material: Chihuahua. Ciudad Guerrero: base of Sierra Madre, Pringle 1215 (type-collection), 1584 (BR, M, UC, W).

Dalea confusa (Rydb.) Barneby, comb. nov., based on Petalostemon confusus (confounded with Dalea polygonoides) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 129. 1920.— "Type collected on pine plains, base of Sierra Madre, September 20, 1887, Pringle 1215..." — Holotypus, US, isotypi, F, K, MEXU, NY (2 sheets), UC!

According to Pringle’s diary (Davis, 1936, pp. 42, 44, 54) his serial number 1215 was collected partly on September 20 and partly on October 4, 1887, on the pine plains near his encampment, situated "on a bench 2- 3 miles south" of Ciudad Guerrero. The second collection, Pringle 1584, is dated September 26, 1888, when the collector was in camp "on the mesa south of Rosario," a hamlet and halt on the railway about 10-11 km east of Ciudad Guerrero. Mention is made in Pringle’s entry for September 26 of that year of a trip to "the plains and to their ponds," a likely habitat for the Dalea. The two stations are in any case only a few miles apart and it is hoped that more material, with ripe fruits, will soon be forthcoming from this original area.

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.

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