Dalea lanata
Rupert C. Barneby
53. Dalea lanata Sprengel
(Plate LXII)
Prostrate perennial herbs from a deeply penetrating, orange-yellow taproot, the 1-few stems (2.5) 3-7 dm long, divaricately branching upward from near the base, the spikes mostly incurved to vertical and appearing leaf-opposed, the subterete, sparsely or obsoletely punctate or verruculose stems greenish-stramineous, varying like the foliage from densely pilosulous to glabrous, the foliage silky-cinereous to dark green, the leaflets prominently punctate or gland-pustulate dorsally; leaf-spurs almost 0; stipules narrowly triangular-subulate to almost linear, submembranous, 1-2.5 mm long, stramineous becoming dry and deciduous, often charged with one or more large glands; intrapetiolular glands 0; post-petiolular glands large, prominent, orange or yellow; leaves all shortly petioled or all subsessile, 1-3 cm long, with margined rachis and (in main cauline ones) 4-7 pairs of obovate, obovate-cuneate, or broadly oblanceolate, mostly emarginate, sometimes truncate or very obtuse, flat or loosely folded, dorsally keeled leaflets 3-10 (12) mm long, charged at or just behind the tip with a prominent gland; peduncles 4-40 mm long; spikes loose and narrow, the flowers when pressed appearing ± 3-ranked, without petals or androecia 6-8 mm diam, the axis becoming (1) 1.5-7.5 (9) cm long; bracts persistent, herbaceous, broadly ovate- or obovate-acuminate or -apiculate, charged dorsally with at least 1, usually several very large, orange or castaneous blister-glands; calyx 3.3—4.5 (4.8) mm long, the submembranous, pallid or stramineous, bluntly angulate tube 1.8-2.5 mm long, the subconcolorous ribs immersed or nearly so, the intervals charged with 1 row of 1-4 small pallid glands (sometimes only distally), the teeth varying from lanceolate to broadly ovate or deltate-acuminate, (1.3) 1.5-2.3 mm long, as long to 0.9 mm shorter than the tube; petals bright red-violet or magenta-purple, all usually (but not always) prominently gland-tipped, the banner not or not much longer than the tiny, caducous epistemonous petals, these all free; banner 2.8-4.3 mm long, the claw 1-2 mm, the ovate-cordate to ± hastate and cucullate blade 1.8-3.1 mm long, 1.8-2.8 mm wide, its basal lobes united across the top of the claw to form a shallowly recessed cornet; wing- and keel-petals 2.2-4.3 mm long, the claw 0.2-0.8 mm long, basal or lateral to the oblong-elliptic to obovate, ovate, or suborbicular blades, these sometimes all dissimilar in 1 flower, those of the keel often a trifle larger) 2-3.8 mm long, 1.5-2.2 mm wide; androecium 8-10-merous, sometimes functionally 5- merous with barren or vestigial intervening filaments, 6.5-8.5 mm long, the filaments separated for ± 1.9-2.9 mm; pod obliquely deltate-obovate in profile, 2.5-3.1 mm long, the ventral suture concave, the strongly convex dorsal filiform, the valves at obconic base hyaline glabrous, thence thinly papery, pilosulous, charged with small scattered glands; seed ochraceous, olivaceous, or brown, smooth and sublustrous, 1.8-2.3 mm long.
Disregarding the very distinct, pentandrous Dalea scariosa, Rydberg’s Arenariae can readily be accomodated within the span of one species, variable in pubescence and minor characters of the calyx, but otherwise virtually uniform. Two geographical races can be distinguished.
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:
