Callirhoe involucrata (Torr. & A.Gray) A.Gray var. involucrata

Authority

Dorr, Laurence J. 1990. A revision of the North American genus (Malvaceae). Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 56: 1-74.

Family

Malvaceae

Scientific Name

Callirhoe involucrata (Torr. & A.Gray) A.Gray var. involucrata

Description

Species Description - Decumbent perennials, 0.7-7.5 dm long. Taproots stout, fusiform or napiform, to 3 dm long. Stems 4-10 per taproot, unbranched, spreading; stem vestiture of four-rayed hairs, the rays uneven in length, appressed to erect. Leaf lohes oblong, obovate or obtmllate, the margins entire or dissected; basal and lower cauline leaf blades (1.2-)2.1-8.5 cm long, 1.5-9.5 cm wide, with petioles 3-11 (-21) cm long; cauline leaf blades 2.5-9 cm long, 3-9.5(-12) cm wide, with petioles 1.5-12(-19) cm long. Stipules ovate or ovaterhombic to ovate-lanceolate, cordate, somewhat auriculate, 5-15(-23) mm long, (3.5-)5.5-12(-16) mm wide. Flowering pedicels (1.3-)3-14.5(-25) cm long; fruiting pedicels (2.5-)4-15(-24) cm long; involucel of three lanceolate, linear-obspatulate or narrowly ovate-rhombic bracts, (6-)8-17.5 mm long, 1.5-3.5 mm wide, inserted immediately below the calyx. Flowers perfect or male-sterile; floral buds 10-19 mm tall, 3.5-8.5 mm broad, the apices of sepals distinct and divergent, forming a 4.5-9.5(-12) mm tall projection; calyx lobes of perfect flowers lanceolate to lance-ovate, attenuate, 9-18.5 mm long, 2.5-5 mm wide, 3-5-nerved, abaxial surfaces with fourrayed stellate and simple hairs, those of malesterile flowers similar to those of perfect flowers, 9-15.5 mm long, 2-4.2 mm wide; petals vinaceous or deep red, with a white basal spot, rarely completely white, those of perfect flowers (1.5-) 1.9-3.2 cm long, 1.3-2.7 cm wide, those of male-sterile flowers 0.8-2 cm long, 0.7-1.2 cm wide; staminal column of perfect flowers 8.5-15 mm long, upper 2/3-4/5 of column antheriferous, lower 1/5-1/3, of column glabrous; anther sacs white or orange-red; stigmata red or pink. Fruit 7.5-11 mm in diameter; mericarps 14-23, reniform to rounded or ovate, 2.7-4.5 mm tall, 2.6-3.8 mm wide, beaks truncate or incurved, 1.7-2.1 mm long, covered with simple hairs, the endoglossa inconspicuous, the collars weakly developed or absent. Seeds 2.1-2.8 mm long, 1.7-2.1 mm wide. Self-compatible. Gametic chromosome numbers n = 15, 30.

Distribution and Ecology - Distribution and ecology. Great Plains and Central Lowlands; southwestern Minnesota, southern and central Nebraska, south to central and western Oklahoma and the Black Prairies of north central Texas, east to northwestern Missouri, west to the high plains of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Dry upland prairies, prairies, fields, open grassy places, and roadsides; sandy, sandy clay, calcareous and gypsum (in Kansas) soil. Adventive in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, eastern Iowa, southwestern Missouri, Arkansas, eastem Oklahoma, and Oregon. A forb of secondary importance in the Big-Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii Vitman) Habitat of central Kansas described by Albertson (1937). Flowering May to early October.

Discussion

Nuttallia involucrata Nuttall ex Torrey, Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 2: 172. 1827, nom. nud. It is clear from the preface to Torrey's (1827) account of a collection of plants made in 1820 by Edwin James, surgeon with Major Long's Second Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, that the author had no intention of publishing any ofthe new species that Nuttall had collected in the Arkansas Territory in 1819. In the preface Torrey (1827) stated, "Some ofthe species discovered by Dr. James were found the year previous by Mr. Nuttall. These I have omitted to describe, as it would be improper to interfere with that gentleman's prior discoveries...." Thus, Torrey's (1827) listing of''NluttalHal involucrata, Nutt. ined. Valley ofthe Loup Fork. Root large, soft, and edible" cannot be construed as constituting a valid description, especially since Torrey (1827) provided all the new species collected by James that he intended to name with both Latin and English descriptions. Furthermore, the James specimen in Torrey's Herbarium (NY) labelled by Nuttall ""Nuttallia * involucrata ined. Nutt.," which undoubtedly constituted all the material then available to Torrey, is without a root. Torrey's (1827) phrase, "Root large, soft, and edible," is certainly a reference, albeit mistaken, to an observation James (1823) published in his account of Long's Expedition. In that publication James (1823) mentioned that the exploring party discovered on the Platte River a new species of Malvaceae "with a large tuberous root which is soft and edible." James (1823) also pointed out, in an accompanying footnote, that this new species was without an involucel and apparently congeneric with Nuttallia, a recently described genus of two exinvolucellate species. His comments leave no doubt that he was referring to a species, Sida macrorhiza (=Callirhoe alcaeoides), that was not published until 1838. Malva involucrata Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1:226. 1838. Sesquicella involucrata (Torrey & Gray) Alefeld, Oesterr. Bot. Z. 12: 256. 1862, nom. illeg. Type. United States. Nebraska: "Valley of the Loup Fork ofthe Platte [River]," 1820, James s.n. (lectotype, here designated, NY; possible isolectotype, GH). This is the first valid publication of the specific epithet ''involucrata" applied to this taxon. Torrey and Gray based the name on the same James specimen, labelled by Nuttall, that Torrey (1827) had previously examined and listed in his account of James' collections Callirhoe verticillata Groenland, Rev. Hort. 171.1862. Type. Based on plants cultivated at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris from seed sent from Califomia by "M. Considerant" (lectotype, here designated, the unnumbered plate accompanying Groenland's description). Callirhoe involucrata (Torrey & Gray) A. Gray var. novo-mexicana E. G. Baker, J. Bot. 29: 49. 1891, ''Callirhoe." Callirhoe involucrata (Torrey & Gray) A. Gray f novo-mexicana (E. G. Baker) Waterfall, Field & Lab. 19: 111. 1951, " novomexicana." Type. United States. New Mexico: Union Co., "A few miles W of McNees's Creek," 25 Aug 1847, Fendler s.n. (lectotype, here designated, B M ; probable isolectotype, G H ) . Waterfall (1951) confused the typification of this taxon by stating that the type was collected by Fendler as Plantae Novo-Mexicanae No. 77. This number, 77, was assigned by George Engelmann to Fendler's collection (Shaw, 1982), and it was associated with an unnamed variety of Callirhoe involucrata in Gray's (1849a) Plantae Fendlerianae Novi-Mexicanae. Baker (1891) did not list a collection number when he published var. novo-mexicana nor did he state where he saw the Fendler collection that he used. Fortunately, there is a note from Baker in the Gray Herbarium accompanied by a sketch of one ofthe leaves on the type of C i. var. novo-mexicana. The sketch matches exactly a leaf on an unnumbered Fendler collection at B M , where Baker worked, and Baker's note that the type was collected " A few miles west of McNees [sic] Creek," New Mexico on 25 August 1847 matches the information on a ticket accompanying that specimen. Thus the material at BM must serve as the lectotype. Waterfall (1951) was probably correct in surmising, on the basis of leaf shape, that the Fendler collection. No. 77, at GH is an isotype, but not all specimens with that number can be considered type material since the number was assigned to collections made on two different days and in two different localities (Shaw, 1982). Waterfall (1951) was incorrect in suggesting that the type locality is in the vicinity of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Engelmann's account (Gray, 1849a) of Fendler's route clearly states that McNee's Creek, a tributary of the North Fork ofthe Canadian River, is in northeastem New Mexico. Fendler collected there on his retum to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas from Santa Fe. Although the leaves ofthe type material of C i. var. novo-mexicana are less dissected than is usual for C. i. var. involucrata the specimens otherwise are referred easily to the latter variety. Callirhoe involucrata (Torrey & A. Gray) A. Gray f. incisa M . Hopkins, Rhodora 45: 271. 1943. Type. United States. Oklahoma: Cleveland Co., woodland copse near South Canadian River, Indian Springs, 4 mi S of Norman, 24 Apr 1937, Hopkins 1296 (holotype, OKL). The corolla is damaged by insects and it is now impossible to see the incised petals described by Hopkins.

Common Names

purple poppy mallow, low poppy mallow, buffalo rose, wine cup, purple mallow