Dalea foliolosa var. foliolosa
Rupert C. Barneby
150a. Dalea foliolosa (Aiton) Barneby var. foliolosa
(Plate CXXXV)
Characters as given in key; n = 7 II (Spellenberg, 1973, as foliosa). — Collections: 108 (xv).
Dry, often weedy places, becoming colonial along highways, in fields, in disturbed and over-grazed brushland, on a variety of volcanic and sedimentary substrata, mostly 1550-2500 m (± 5200-8300 ft), widespread and locally abundant over much of the Mexican Plateau from n.-e. and centr. Chihuahua to s. Coahuila, interior Jalisco, n. Michoacan, the Valley of Mexico, and Puebla; absent from the lowlands of the Bajio Country and the Balsas Depression, but again locally plentiful in the temperate highlands of Sierra Madre del Sur and centr. Oaxaca s.-e. through Chiapas and Guatemala into Honduras, in its s. province apparently native in pine-oak woodlands up to 2175 m (7250 ft), but descending along paths, highways, and margins of cornfields into arid grasslands as low as 1000 (exceptionally 550) m. — Flowering June to November n.- ward, mostly September into early winter s.-ward .—Representative: MEXICO. Chihuahua: R. M. Stewart 2361 (GH); Ripley & Barneby 13,869 (CAS, NY). Durango: Palmer 619 (ARYL, C, F, NY, UC). Coahuila: Ripley & Barneby 13,802 (NY). Zacatecas: Pringle 1777 (BR, F, M, NY, UC, W). Aguas Calientes: Rose & Painter 7701 (NY, US). San Luis Potosi: Ripley & Barneby 13,324 (CAS, MEXU, MICH, NY, US). Jalisco: McVaugh 13,258 (MEXU, MICH). MichoacAn: Seler & Seler 1212 (US); Ripley & Barneby 13,397a (NY, from near Zitacuaro, where associated with var. citrina). Mexico: Miranda & Barkley in 1946 (ENCB, F); Bourgeau 775 (BR, F, L, M, P); Pringle 9739 (F, L, NY, Z). Puebla: Purpus 2650 (F, NY). Veracruz (?.): Mueller 282 (NY, perhaps from adjoining Puebla). Guerrero: Hinton 14,822 (GH, NY, RENNER, UC, US). Oaxaca: Liebmann 4584 (F, UC, W); Ripley & Barneby 14,592 (CAS, MEXU, NY, US), 14,609 (NY), 14,642a (CAS, NY). Chiapas: Breedlove 7893 (ENCB, NY), 13,056 (NY), 14,142 (US). GUATEMALA. Huehuetenango: Standley 81,308 (F). Sacatepequez: Standley 59,443 (F). Chimaltenango: Standley 62,788 (F). Guatemala: Aguilar 14 (F). Escuintla: Standley 58,197 (F). Jalapa: Standley 77,278 (F). Jutlapa: Steyermark 30,389 (F). HONDURAS. Comayagua: Scherz, s.n. (W).
Dalea foliolosa (Ait.) Barneby, Phytologia 26: 1. 1973, based on Psoralea foliolosa (with little leaflets) Ait., Hort. Kew. 3: 82. 1789. — "Introd. 1780, by Benjamin Bewick Esq." — Holotypus, so labelled, BM!
Psoralea citriodora (lemon-scented, of the foliage) Cav., Ic. 3: 36, PI. 271. 1794.— "Habitat in Nova-Hispania...Florebat...in horto Matritensi...." — No typus found in herb. Cavanilles. (MA); neotypus, labelled "Dalea citriodora", Herb. Sesse & Mocino 2666 (p. p., the plants at left of sheet), MA! isotypus (fragm.), F!—Dalea citriodora (Cav.) Willd., Sp. Pl. 3: 1339. 1801, comb. illegit. Parosela citriodora (Cav.) Rose, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10: 104. 1906.
Dalea polyphylla (with many leaves or leaflets) Mart. & Gal., Bull. Acad. Brux. 102: 44. 1843. — "...dans les bois de Juquila et de Yolotepeque (cordillere occidentale d’Oaxaca, pres l’Ocean pacifique), de 4 a 6,000 pieds..."-Holotypus, Galeotti 3164, BR (herb. Mart.)! isotypi, F (fragm), P, W!-Parosela polyphylla (Mart. & Gal.) Rose in Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10: 104. 1906.
Dalea platystegia (with broad bracts) Schauer, Linnaea 20: 741. 1847. —"In terris Mexicanis: Aschenborn n. 462." — Holotypus, formerly at B, destroyed; no isotypus found.—The description clearly indicates a form of D. foliolosa, the short, ovate teeth of the calyx pointing to var. foliolosa rather than var. citrina.
Psoralea citrodora (lemon-scented) Sesse & Mocino, Fl. Nov. Hisp. 120. 1889.— "Habitat in Chilapae montibus [ Guerrero]. — Lectotypus, the same specimen (MA) as that of Psoralea citriodora Cav., q. v. supra.
Parosela roseola (pinkish) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 81. 1920.-"Type collected on Volcan Jumaytepeque, Guatemala, November 1892, Heyde & Lux (Donnell Smith dist. no.) 4166..."- Holotypus, NY! isotypi, GH, US!-Dalea roseola (Rydb.) Cowan Brittonia 8: 60. 1954.
For comment on variation in var. foliolosa see discussion of the whole species, above. The synonymy deserves a word of explanation. The original description of Ps. citriodora Cav., nomenclatural parent of Parosela or Dalea citriodora, the names under which var. foliolosa has passed in modern times, was based on plants cultivated in Madrid from Mexican seed furnished by Sesse. Nothing matching the protologue or bearing the name was found in the Cavanilles herbarium (MA). On the other hand the Sesse & Mocino herbarium contains several sheets of var. foliolosa, associated with a variety of names, some obviously inappropriate and misplaced. One, however, is actually labelled "citriodora", and also agress well with the protologue of the independently published Ps. citrodora S. & M. It seems reasonable to suppose that the epithet citriodora, descriptive and unusual, was coined for D. foliolosa by the field-botanist Sesse and later taken up by Cavanilles for the plant which flowered in cultivation. Following this line of reasoning, I have selected the same Sesse specimen as lectotypus of both proposals, thereby settling the two variant spellings as exactly synonymous. I must mention, nevertheless, one discrepancy. The lectotypus represents, I believe, the form of var. foliolosa found on the Mexican Plateau. However Sesse & Mocino quote as the locality for their Ps. citrodora the mountains of Chilapa, in Guerrero, a region where one would expect either the blue-flowered, southern variant of var. foliolosa or possibly, if from a valley habitat, the taller var. citrina. The latter was collected by the botanists of the Royal Expedition in New Spain (Herb. Sesse and Mocino 2653, MA, sub nom. Ps. laevigata), and it is therefore possible that this, and not var. foliolosa, was the type actually grown in the Madrid garden. It should be noted that this Ps. laevigata of the Sesse Herbarium cannot be the plant described under that name in Plantae Novae Hispaniae 120. 1889; the latter is almost certainly a Marina. The tragic disorder into which Pavon allowed the Nueva Espana collection to fall is too well known to need comment, and labels unless confirmed by strong circumstantial or descriptive evidence are of themselves untrustworthy. In this case the uncertainty surrounding the real nature of Ps. citriodora would become crucial only if var. citrina and var. foliosa were ever again considered specifically distinct entities. The earliest name for any segment of the species is certainly Ps. foliolosa Ait., fortunately verifiable by a holotypic specimen.
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:
