Dalea cylindrica var. haenkeana


Rupert C. Barneby

80c.  Dalea cylindrica Hooker var. haenkeana Barneby

(Plate LXXXI)

Suggesting slender, diminished forms of var. cylindrica, but variable in habit, suffruticose but either erect or prostrate, rarely radicant if humifuse, in shelter becoming (acc. Ferreyra) 1 m tall, usually less than 5 dm, the young growth silky-strigulose with subappressed hairs up to ± 0.15-0.3 mm long, the foliage green, the leaflets commonly glabrous above, sometimes also beneath; primary leaves 1.5-3 cm long, the 4-6 often rather distant pairs of leaflets 1.5-5 (6) mm long; calyx 4.2-5.6 mm long, the tube externally glabrous or thinly (rarely densely) pilosulous with weakly spreading hairs up to 0.5-0.8 mm long, the intercostal membranes charged with 4-7 golden or reddish glands; petals bicolored, the whitish (rubescent) banner glabrous dorsally, the epistemonous ones blue. — Collections: 9 (o).

Open hillsides, sometimes in shelter of second-growth brush, or on stony slopes and ridges laid waste by erosion, 2750-3750 m, along the Andes of centr. and n. Peru, mostly in the drainage of Rio Maranon, from Huanuco n. to Cajamarca, s. just into Pasco and attaining the Pacific slope in La Libertad and possibly in Ancash. — Flowering January to July, perhaps all year .—Material: PERU. s. 1., Haenke 1829 in 1790 (NY). Cajamarca. Cutervo: Sandeman 4129 (F, K, OXF); typus of D. cuterovoana. La Libertad. Otuzco: A. Lopez Miranda 0115 (US); holotypus. :Trujillo to Huamachuco, Ferreyra 3002, 3009 (US). Ancash. : Cordillera Blanca, Kiurzl P 2293 (NY). Huanuco. Dos de Mayo: typus of D. catatona. Pasco. Cerro de Pasco: Ferreyra 6599 (F, US).

Dalea cylindrica Hook. var. haenkeana (Thaddaeus Haenke, 1761-1817) Barneby, var. nov., a var. cylindrica imprimis habitu graciliori, foliolis parvis 2-6 (6) nec 7-14 mm longis, stipulis abbreviatis absimilis. A var. nova (Ulbr.) Barneby dentibus calycinis haud rigidescentibus, spicisque et primis abbreviatis separanda. — PERU. La Libertad. Otuzco: Agallpampa, 3270 m, Maio 22, 1952, A. Lopez Miranda 0886. — Holotypus, US.

Dalea cutervoana (of Cutervo) Szyszyl. in Polska Akad. Umiet. Wyd. mat...Rozpravy II, 9: 221. 1895. — "Cutervo, Jelski no. 224." — Holotypus, collected by Const, de Jelski in May, 1879, accompanied by exquisite floral analysis by Szyszylowicz, KRA!

Parosela catatona (stretched down, lowly) Macbr., Field Mus., Bot. 4: 105. 1927.— "PERU:...Chasqui, Dept, of Huanuco, July 27-Aug. 13, 1922, Macbride & Featherstone 1770..." — Holotypus, F! isotypus, US! Field Neg. 50194, F, NY! —Dalea catatona (Macbr.) Macbr., Candollea 7: 222. 1937.

The material referred above to var. haenkeana is diverse in detail, especially in distribution of pubescence and in number of flowers to the spike. The holotypus has oblong spikes of about 20-30 flowers and calyces thinly pilose from base upward. It is a close match for the plant collected somewhere in Peru in 1790 by Haenke, the plant to which I first attached the varietal name. Except for the calyx, which is glabrous and vernicose up to the pilosulous orifice and teeth, Ferreyra 3309 from the same department is essentially identical. These specimens are from slender, diffuse subshrubs of some 3-6 dm in stature, and differ from var. cylindrica in their delicate growth-habit, small leaflets, and short spikes. The petals are blue, but in this respect not different from the phase of var. cylindrica that has been collected in Ancash. My concept of var. haenkeana has been built up by accretion around these three collections. The Sandeman collection from near Llama in Cutervo (Cajamarca) seems to represent a more slender, truly prostrate and matted state of the phase with externally glabrous calyx-tube. It was identified by Sandwith as "near D. catatona" and I suspect that the holotypus of the latter, which differs in its thinly pilose calyx, represents a parallel but possibly independent modification of var. haenkeana, perhaps an ecological variant from an unusually barren or exposed habitat. The spike of the original P. catatona is reduced to two to five flowers, suggesting an altogether distinct sort of dalea; but the cited specimen from Cordillera Blanca in Ancash provides a transitional spike of 6-12 flowers. Only tentative taxonomic judgments can be made on the status of these forms until much larger and more complete collections can be studied, preferably in the field.

In La Libertad and Cajamarca var. haenkeana is vicariant and marginally sympatric with var. nova and transitional individuals are known from the area. Ideally var. nova is a coarser, more obviously glandular-verruculose plant with slightly more numerous leaflets, at least in primary leaves that are often inconveniently lacking from many flowering specimens. The feature most useful in distinguishing var. nova is the usually characteristic calyx with its stiff, corneous-margined and thick-ribbed, distally glabrate teeth.

A peculiar dalea resembling var. haenkeana in foliage and flower but differing in promptly deciduous bracts was collected at ± 3400 m between Celendin and Cajamarca (prov. Celendin) by Ferreyra (no. 15,122, NY, US). The material is too scanty and too young for dependable analysis, but may well represent an undescribed entity.

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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