Dalea jamesii
Rupert C. Barneby
159. Dalea jamesii (Torrey) Torrey & Gray
(Plate CXL)
Low, loosely tufted perennial herbs from a thick woody root and knotty or shortly forking caudex, up to the pilose-barbate inflorescence densely silky-pilose or -pilosulous with narrowly ascending and subappressed (rarely a few spreading) hairs up to (0.5) 0.7-1.3 mm long, the 1-7, rarely up to 15 stems excluding the solitary terminal spike 1-10 (13) cm long, when short erect or nearly so, when longer decumbent and incurved distally, simple or spurred at base, the foliage silvery (rufescent when dried), the leaflets equally pubescent both sides, pungently oil-scented when crushed but not visibly glandular; leaf-spurs 0.5-1 mm long; stipules narrowly lance-acuminate, (1) 2-6 mm long, becoming pallid except for red or livid tips, stiff and fragile, subglabrous or thinly pilosulous; leaves (0.6) 1-3 (4) cm long, petioled, palmately 3-foliolate, the narrowly winged, sometimes minutely punctate petiole (3) 5-15 (18) mm long, the leaflets obovate to broadly oblanceolate, obtuse but often penicillate-acute, flat or loosely folded, (3) 5-18 mm long, the terminal one commonly longest, all carinate dorsally by the midrib; spikes sessile or nearly so, moderately dense, without petals (16) 18-23 (25) mm diam, the pilosulous axis becoming 1.5-6.5 (8) cm long; bracts deciduous at or soon after anthesis, lance-oblong- or narrowly obovate-acuminate, (4) 5-8 (9) mm long, at base embracing the calyx, thinly pubescent but eglandular dorsally, the lower ones firm, green or lurid, the upper submembranous, purplish or lurid beyond the pallid base; calyx (8.3) 8.5-12 (13.3) mm long, pilose with spreading spiral hairs up to 1.3-2.3 mm long, the tube (2.4) 2.8-3.5 mm long, somewhat recessed behind banner, the castaneous ribs becoming prominent, the flat membranous intervals charged with 1 row of 3-4 tiny transparent glands, the deltate- or triangular- aristate teeth (5) 5.5-9 (10) mm long, not gland-spurred; petals clear yellow, fading orange-brown, often glandless, the epistemonous ones perched below middle of androecium; banner 5.2-6.6 mm long, the claw 2.6-3.5 mm, the usually deltate-cordate, subacute, spade-shaped blade 3.2-4.2 mm long, 3.2-4.4 mm wide; wings 5.3-6.8 mm long, the claw 1.4-2.1 mm, the obliquely ovate-oblong obtuse blade 3.9-5.1 mm long, 2.3-3.2 mm wide; keel (6.3) 6.5-8.6 mm long, the claws 1.5-2.8 mm, the obliquely obovate blades 5.3-6.3 mm long, 3.2-3.8 mm wide; androecium 10-merous, (9.5) 10-11.7 mm long, the longer filaments free for 1.7-3 mm, the pallid anthers (0.8) 0.9-1.2 mm long; pod (of the section) 3.5-4 mm long; seed castaneous, lustrous, 2.3-3 mm long; n = 7 (Spellenberg, 1973). —Collections: 86 (viii).
Stony hillsides, plains, and gullied breaks on short-grass prairie, on a variety of eruptive and sedimentary strata, mostly between 925 and 2100 m (3100-7000 ft), widely dispersed and locally common nearly throughout the valley of Pecos River in e. New Mexico and w. Texas (e. to Crockett Co.), n. through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to the Arkansas valley in Colorado and adjacent Kansas, in New Mexico extending w. feebly into the middle Rio Grande valley at Santa Fe and more abundantly across the southern tier of counties to the edge of the Gila Basin in s.-e. Arizona (to Santa Cruz and Pima cos.; to be expected in extreme n. Sonora), and from trans- Pecos Texas s. in scattered stations through e. Chihuahua as far as Hidalgo del Parral. Flowering April to August n.-ward, often again in fall in Mexico and Arizona.—Representative: UNITED STATES. Colorado: Osterhout 2034 (NY); Clokey 3801 (UC); Barneby 14,992 (CAS, NY). Oklahoma: Waterfall 10,725, 14,906 (OKLA). Texas: Cory 53,410 (NY); Earle & Tracy 341 (NY, W); Correll & Johnston 21,995 (RENNER); Ripley & Barneby 7509 (CAS, NY). New Mexico: Fendler 133 (L, NY, OXF, UC, US, W); Barneby 13,829 (NY); T. & L. Mosquin 5730 (NY); Metcalfe 92 (OKLA, NY, UC, US). Arizona: B. & R. Maguire 11,681 (NY, UC); Thornber 4398 (OKLA). MEXICO. Chihuahua: Correll & Johnston 21,688 (RENNER); Ripley & Barneby 13,907, 13,930 (NY).
Dalea jamesii (Torr.) T. & G., Fl. N. Amer. 1: 308. 1838, based on Psoralea jamesii (Edwin James, 1797-1861) Torr., Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y. 2: 175. 1827 ("Jamesii").—"Sandy plains of the Canadian." — Holotypus, collected by Dr. James in 1820, NY (herb. Torr.)! — Jamesia obovata Raf., Atl. Jour. 145. 1832, an illegitimate change of epithet. Parosela jamesii (Torr.) Vail, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 16. 1897.
Parosela porteri (Thomas Conrad Porter, 1822-1901) A. Nels., Bot. Gaz. 31: 395. 1901("Porteri"). — "Collected at Berwind [Huerfano Co.], Colorado, 1900, by Jennie M. Archibald, no. 244." — Holotypus, WYO!
A neatly attractive dalea, in stature and in the relatively emormous but not extremely dense spikes of long-toothed calyces similar to D. wrightii and often confused with it, mixed collections being not infrequent in herbaria. In western Texas and adjoining states D. jamesii is sympatric not only with D, wrightii but also with D. nana, but is readily distinguished from both by its trifoliolate cauline leaves; furthermore from D. nana in its much larger long-toothed calyx and from D. wrightii in the ample blades of the short- stalked banner and low-perching keel. The close affinity of D. jamesii is with D. prostrata, from which it differs in the short, firm stems, silvery appressed pubescence of the leaves, and greatly elongated calyx-teeth. These two species are almost entirely allopatric, and where their ranges converge in southern Chihuahua remain as sharply distinct as elsewhere.
Apart from expectable variation in development of stem and length of spike, D. jamesii is virtually monomorphic. The description of Parosela porteri derives from a misconception: that it was the Dalea jamesii described by Porter & Coulter in their Synopsis, but not the original plant described by Torrey. In Colorado D. jamesii is known on reliable evidence to extend no further north than the Arkansas valley, and no higher in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains than ± 6600 ft (1980 m), but is reported by Harrington (Man. Pl. Colo. 326) from central Colorado and up to 9000 ft. A specimen at NY (Brandegee 188) labelled "Breckenridge, 9700 ft" is perhaps associated with the wrong data. The locality, high on the west slope in Summit County, is not necessarily impossible, for islands of prairie vegetation do occur high on the flanks of the Rocky Mountains, but requires verification. Elsewhere D. jamesii extends west of the Continental Divide only by the well-known route of migration around the south end of the Mogollon Mountains into the edge of the Gila Basin.
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:
