Dalea carnea var. albida
Rupert C. Barneby
43b. Dalea carnea (Michaux) Poiret var. albida (Torrey & Gray) Barneby
(Plate LVII)
Variable in habit and vigor, the stems mostly 4-8 (10) dm long, erect and virgate- paniculate to diffuse-decumbent; primary leaves 1.5-4 cm long, mostly 5-foliolate, with longer petiole than var. carnea and the terminal leaflet often much longer than the rest; spikes 0.7-2 cm long, 7-9 mm diam; calyx 2.9-3.5 mm, its tube 2.1-2.4 mm, and teeth 0.6-1.1 mm long; petals as var. carnea but white, sometimes a trifle smaller; 2n = 14 (Wemple, 1970, p. 12).— Collections: 22 (o).
Sandy pine-oak woodlands, apparently avoiding the moist lowlands where var. carnea is commonest, widespread in n. peninsular Florida and n. inland from the immediate coast into central Georgia and (acc. Wemple) extreme s.-e. Alabama; cf. Wemple, 1970, map 2. — Flowering July to November. — Representative'. Georgia: Harper 433, 873, 1781 (NY); Kuns 183 (WIS). Florida: Curtiss 4224, 5200 (NY, UC), 5880 (UC); Small et al. 10,584 (NY); Isely & Wemple 9238, 9263 (NY).
Dalea carnea (Michaux) Poiret var. albida (Torrey & Gray) Barneby, comb. nov., based on Petalostemon carneum ß albidum (whitish, of the petals) T. & G., Fl. N. Amer. 1: 311. 1838. — "...near Milledgeville [Baldwin Co], Georgia, Dr. Boykin." — Holotypus, NY (herb. Torr.)! — Petalostemon albidus (T. & G.) Small, Fl. S. E. U. S. 1332. 1903.
In many respects var. albida is morphologically intermediate between var. carnea and var. gracilis and in northern Florida occurs in the geographical hiatus between them. Wemple suggests that it may represent a genetic recombination of two older types, but one that may have occurred in the distant past, for var. albida now has an extensive independent range. The leaflets of main cauline leaves are in var. gracilis mostly seven with the odd one longest; in var. carnea seven or nine but the odd one scarcely longer; in var. albida only five, with a long odd one as in var. gracilis. In this respect var. albida is not strictly intermediate between the supposed progenitors but appears to have drifted off in an independent course of modification such as one would reasonably expect of a geographic subspecies.
Wemple’s map shows P. albidus extending south in Florida to Lee County, but there are only two dots from south of the latitude of Daytona, one of which (as mentioned under var. carnea) is based on a misidentification. In northern Florida var. albida has been traced west on the Gulf Coast to Franklin County, where it comes out to the coast near Carrabelle, at or close to the east limit var. gracilis. The most northern record in Georgia is still the original one of Boykin at Milledgeville.
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:
