89.  Dalea kuntzei Harms

(Plate LXXXV)

Slender, low, tortuously branching subshrubs up to 5 (?) dm tall, appearing glabrous up to the inflorescence but the stipules at least when young pilosulous and the leaf- rachis sometimes charged with a few weak scattered hairs, the old stems becoming striped and fissured, the livid young branchlets ± sparsely tuberculate, the thin and distant foliage dark green, the very narrow leaflets glabrous, strongly dotted beneath; leaf-spurs 0.4-0.8 mm long; stipules narrowly subulate, livid, 1.2-2.5 mm long; intra- petiolular glands minute; post-petiolular glands small but prominent; leaves shortly petioled, the main cauline ones 2.5-4 cm long, with narrowly thick-margined, gland- dotted rachis and 4-7 distant pairs of linear-oblanceolate, obtuse or emarginate, folded or involute (thus apparently truly linear) leaflets (4) 5-12 (fide Ulbrich up to 18) mm long; peduncles few, terminal to leafy branchlets, 1.5-4 cm long; spikes moderately dense, ovoid or ovoid-oblong, without petals 10-12 mm diam, the pilosulous axis 0.7-2.5 cm long; bracts persistent, 4-6 (6.5) mm long, the navicular, dorsally keeled body 3.5-4.5 (5) mm long, in profile ± 1.2 mm wide, distally and medially firm and livid-striate or -suffused, dorsally gross-glandular and pilosulous along keel, at least below middle, glabrous within, contracted into a subulate, internally pilosulous tail ± 1 (1.5) mm long; calyx 5-6 mm long, pilose throughout with fine ascending spiral hairs up to 0.8-1.2 mm long, the tube (measured to dorsal sinus) 2.9-3 mm, recessed behind banner and the orifice strongly oblique, the livid-castane- ous ribs not very prominent, the membranous intervals charged with 1 row of ± 3 yellow or livid blister-glands, the triangular-acuminate, gland-spurred teeth unequal, the dorsal one 2-2.8 mm long (almost as long as to 1 mm shorter than tube), the ventral pair shortest; petals bicolored, the banner creamy-white except for basal lobes, rubescent, charged near eye with a few small glands, the epistemonous ones amethyst-purple, their outer margins whitish (when dry yellowish), perched low on androecium (1.2-1.7 mm above hypanthium), all but the wings gland-tipped; banner 7 mm long, the claw 2.8-2.9 mm, the broadly ovate, obtuse, hooded blade 4.6-4.9 mm long, 3.7-3.9 mm wide, recessed at base into a comet and the basal lobes incurved and adherent to form lateral pockets; wings 5.5-5.8 mm long, the claw 1.8-2 mm, the lance-oblong blade 4.2-4.4 mm long, 1.7-2.1 mm wide; keel 8-8.7 mm long, the claws 2-2.4 mm, the blades 6.3-6.5 mm long, 3.1-3.2 mm wide; androecium 10- merous, 7.2-8 mm long, the longer filaments free for 2.7 mm, the connective gland- tipped, the anthers 0.8-1 mm long; pod in profile deltate, 3-3.3 mm long, the style base at one corner, the prow slenderly keeled, the valves membranous in lower 1/2, thence firm, densely pilosulous, charged with small, evenly spaced glands. — Collections: 2 (o).

Arid stony hillsides, 1000-1800 m, apparently local, known only from the e. slope of Cordillera Oriental in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. — Flowering March to June. —Material: BOLIVIA. Santa Cruz: Mairana, Steinbach 8297 (F, NY).

Dalea kuntzei (K. E. O. Kuntze, 1843-1907) Harms ap. O. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 3³: 59. 1898. — "Bolivia: 1000 m Sierra de Santa Cruz." — Holotypus, collected by Otto Kuntze in May, 1892, formerly B, survives as Field Neg. 2035! isotypi, F, NY (2 sheets, herb. Kuntz.)! — Parosela kuntzei (Harms) Macbr., Field Mus., Bot. 4: 112. 1927.

Dalea rubricaulis (red-stemmed) Ulbr., Meded. Rijks Herb. Leiden 27: 50. 1915.— "An sonnigen Felsen im Tal des Rio de la Vieja, 1750 m (no. 1711a —bl. im Marz 1911)." — Holotypus, collected by Theodor Herzog, formerly B, survives as Field Neg. 733 (numbered by Macbride 1711, not 1711a)! — Parosela rubricaulis (Ulbr.) Macbr., Field Mus., Bot. 4: 112. 1927 (non P. rubricaulis Rusby, 1910).

Harms rather ludicrously compared D. kuntzei with the North American annual D. filiformis; both have narrow leaflets but otherwise are worlds apart. In the form of the inflorescence and in petal-color D. kuntzei is essentially like D. elegans var. elegans, which represents the genus at similar elevations in the Andean foothills of northwest Argentina, and is probably closely akin to it, although the few pairs of long, very narrow leaflets are amply distinctive. Its nearest neighbor in Bolivia is D. pazensis, found mostly above 2000 m along the plateau rim; this has only slightly more numerous but always expanded leaflets, and vivid blue and white flowers.