Dalea compacta var. pubescens (A.Gray) Barneby
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
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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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
based on Petalostemon violaceum var.pubescens (hairy) Gray, Pl. Wright. 1: 46. 1852, p. 9., quoad basonym. Scheeleanum et pl. tex. Wrightianam, exclus. "Pl. Fendl. 33" plantisque ibi citatis.—Lectoholotypus (Heller, 1901, 1. c. infra): Wright from Austin,
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Synonyms
Petalostemon pubescens A.Nelson, Petalostemon purpureus var. pubescens (A.Gray) H.D.Harr., Petalostemon virgatus Nees & Schwein., Kuhnistera pulcherrima A.Heller, Petalostemon pulcherrimus (A.Heller) A.Heller, Dalea helleri Shinners
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Description
Species Description - Stems commonly erect or ascending at angles of 45-70°, but sometimes diffuse; leaflets mostly less than 3 mm wide; 2n = 14 (Wemple, 1970, p. 12); otherwise as in key. — Collections: 37 (v).
Distribution and Ecology - Stony limestone hills, live-oak savannahs, and mesquite prairie, mostly below 450 m, widespread and locally abundant over the hill country of e. Texas, n. to both banks of Red River in s.-centr. Oklahoma and adjacent Texas, s. to Balcones Escarpment, w. to Eastland and Kerr counties, s.-e. on the Gulf Coastal prairies to Jackson County; isolated outliers near Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and (according to Wemple, 1. c.) in trans-Pecos Texas and the Rio Grande valley are perhaps introduced or mistakenly labelled; cf. Wemple, 1970, map.
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Discussion
(Plate LVIII)
This is the purple prairie clover most abundant and widespread over much of eastern Texas where, except in the valley of Red River and a few stations southward, it fills the role played by D. purpurea on the prairies of middle United States. Essentially Texan, it might be visualized as a magnified edition of the common mould, quite similar to D. purpurea in habit and foliage but with swollen heads and more flamboyant tassels of flower. The only strong differential characters between the two species are in the calyces, already mentioned above. My concept of var. pubescens is coextensive with Petalostemon pulcherrimum of Wemple’s revision (1970, p. 81), the difference in names being contingent on taxonomic judgement. Wemple discusses the synonymy in greater detail, supererogatory here. During independent preliminary study I formed the perhaps still arguable opinion that Petalostemon violaceum var. pubescens Gray, based on pubescent elements of D. purpurea and P. virgatum Scheele, was hopelessly ambiguous and reasonably discarded as a nomen confusum. Gray’s mixture, however, had been analyzed by Heller in 1901 and inferentially typified, with the result that the epithet pubescens can be preserved in the varietal category. My combination "D. compacta var. helleri", employed rather widely in herbarium annotation, is a nomen nudum.
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Objects
Representative: Oklahoma: Wemple 402 (NY). Texas: E. Hall 139 (NY); Corv 53,308 (NY, UC), 53,336 (NY); Tracy 8041 (NY, UC); Barneby 14,491 (CAS, F, I A, MICH, NY, UC, US), 14,500 (IA, NY, US), 14,503 (CAS, NY); A. Heller 1857 (NY, OKLA, UC, US, WIS); Wemple 234 (NY).
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Distribution
Oklahoma United States of America North America| Texas United States of America North America| United States of America North America|