Baptisia lanceolata (Walter) Elliott
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Authority
Isely, Duane. 1981. Leguminosae of the United States. III. Subfamily Papilionoideae: tribes Sophoreae, Podalyrieae, Loteae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (3): 1-264.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Glabrate or appressed-villosulous, erect, bushy herb, commonly forming nearly spherical "shrubs" 5-10 dm. Stems from a woody crown or subrhizomatous, solitary or few-clustered, sometimes zig-zag. Petioles 0-4(-8) mm, those of midblades usually 0-2(-4) mm; leaflets petioluled .4-1 cm, broadly obovate, elliptic, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 3.5-10 cm x 1-4.5 cm, 1.8-5 r; blades coriaceous, shiny and glabrate above, villosulous to glabrate below. Stipules small, early deciduous. Flowers solitary and axillary, or in short, 2-4(-6) cm, terminal racemes of 2-4(-10) flowers 2-2.5(-2.7) cm; bracts deciduous. Pedicels of solitary flowers 3-10 mm, those of racemed flowers usually shorter. Calyx 8-10 mm, pubescent (-glabrous); lobes subequal, 2-2.5(-3) mm. Corolla yellow, turning brown; standard often medially red-streaked or -spotted; keel incurved through 45°-80°. Ovary stipitate 3 mm; body oblong-lanceolate, tapering, puberulent or villous with hairs .2-.5 mm continuing up the style; ovules 15-25; enlarging pistil conspicuously villous. Legume ascending, stipitate or exserted-stipitate 5-11 mm, plumply subspheroid, ovoid-ellipsoid or lancoid, slightly inflated, 1-2 cm x 11.2 cm, nearly symmetric, strongly tapering-beaked; valves thick and woody, black, glabrate or with remains of pubescence. Seeds few-numerous.
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Discussion
Baptisia lanceolata differs from the other southeastern species in its commonly solitary or 2-3 clustered flowers, evidently petioluled leaflets and more incurved keel. It is seemingly an eastern cognate of B. nuttalliana of the south-central states, and this relationship is borne out by chromatography (Horne, 1965). Previous authors (e.g., Larisey, 1940a) have treated it as two species (Baptisia lanceolata and B. elliptica), but regional and local variance render this concept untenable, and Horne (1965) found no chromatographic differences among the variants. The two regional types, defined in the key following, constitute weak varieties because they are entirely confluent.
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Distribution
Se United States (South Carolina-) s Georgia, Florida Panhandle (-s Alabama), ne Florida and disjunctly s.
United States of America North America|