(Plate LXXI)

Perennial from a woody taproot, villous-tomentulose throughout with fine, weak, contorted hairs, the few, simple, erect, herbaceous stems 3.5-4.5 dm tall, subterete and almost eglandular, densely leafy to or beyond the middle, at top subcorymbosely or paniculately branched, the upper leaves abruptly reduced in size, the spikes terminal to the branchlets, the foliage gray or canescent, the leaflets pubescent both sides, dotted beneath; leaf-spurs very short, mostly less than 0.5 mm; stipules linear or subulate, recurved, 1.5-2 mm long, glabrate, livid, fragile in age; intrapetiolular glands 0; post-petiolular glands small, impressed or if slightly raised concealed by pubescence; main cauline leaves 1-3.5 cm long, subsessile, with narrowly margined rachis and 12-18 pairs of subsessile, crowded linear-involute, obtuse or bluntly gland-mucronulate leaflets 2-7.5 mm long, obtusely carinate dorsally by the castaneous midrib, inserted ± 1-2 mm apart along the rachis, the terminal one smallest; peduncles appearing 3-12 cm long, often shorter, but the upper leaves suppressed; spikes ovate or depressed-capitate, moderately dense, without petals ± 9 mm diam, the villosulous axis ± 5-15 mm long; bracts deciduous, narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 2-3 mm long, villosulous dorsally, glabrous within, livid-tipped; calyx densely silky-pilosulous externally, 3.7-5 mm long, the tube 2-2.5 mm, oblique at mouth but not strongly recessed behind the banner, the ribs brown, slender but somewhat raised, the membranous intervals charged with ± 3, uniseriate, always small, yellowish glands scarcely visible externally, the triangular-acuminate, gland-spurred teeth unequal, the dorsal one longest, 1.7-2.5 mm long; petals opening bicolored, the banner whitish but early rubescent, the inner ones rose-purple, elevated not more than 2 mm above the hypanthium, all glandless; banner 4.5-4.8 mm long, the claw 2.5-3 mm, the deltate- cordate, somewhat hooded blade 2.5-2.9 mm long, 2.4-2.8 mm wide, closed at base into a shallow cornet; wings 4.8-5 mm long, the claw ±1.8 mm, the blade 3.4 mm long, 1.5-1.7 mm wide; keel 5.6-6.4 mm long, the claws 2.5-3.1 mm, the broadly ovate blades 3.2-3.8 mm long, 2.2-2.4 mm wide; androecium 6-7 mm long, the longest filament free for ± 1.8 mm. — Collections: 3 (o).

Open places in the oak-belt, sometimes on "dry, chalky hilltops", rare and local, known only from Etzatlan, Jalisco (± 70 km w. of Guadalajara), and Cerro Azul, ± 22 km s.-e. of Morelia, Michoacan. — Flowering in October to December. — Material: Jalisco. Etzatlan, Barnes & Land 295 (F, K, doubtless exact topotypes, as the collectors visited Etzatlan in Pringle’s company). Michoacan. Cerro Azul, Arsene in 1912 (L).

Dalea abietifolia (Rose ex Rydb.) Bullock, Kew Bull. 1939: 194. 1939, based on Parosela abietifolia Rose ex Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 92. 1920.— "Type collected on dry chalky summits of mountains above Etzatlan, Jalisco, October 27, 1903, Pringle 8774.." — Holotypus, US! isotypi, F, GH, K, L, M, MEXU, NY, UC, W, Z!

This strongly characterized species is recognized at sight by the elaborate, gray-tomentulose foliage. In its range of dispersal only the related D. pectinata has nearly as many or as crowded leaflets, but these are glabrous and elliptic or linear-elliptic rather than truly linear in outline, and shorter or at least shorter in proportion to the length of the leaf. The stems of D. pectinata, which was collected by Pringle close to the type-locality of D. abietifolia, are commonly taller, 6-15 rather than 4-5 dm long. The only related dalea which has tomentulose leaflets twelve or more to the leaf is the geographically remote D. similis, apparently endemic to the Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango. This is a much taller plant, with longer spikes, paripinnate leaves, and a calyx-tube deeply recessed behind the gland-sprinkled banner.