Dalea reclinata

  • Title

    Dalea reclinata

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Dalea reclinata (Cav.) Willd.

  • Description

    144.  Dalea reclinata (Cavanilles) Willdenow

    (Plate CXXXI)

    Annual herbs, (0.6) 1-4 (5) dm tall, simple and monocephalous only when depauperate, usually branching from near base and the lateral axes incurved-ascending, the stems glabrous and purplish-glaucescent in the lower 34 thence thinly pilose with fine weak spreading and ascending spiral hairs, the herbage green, the submembranous leaflets glabrous or medially glabrate above, paler and obscurely punctate or epunctate beneath; leaf-spurs (1) 1.4-4 mm long; stipules narrowly lance-acuminate or linear-caudate 3-7 mm long, usually livid; intra- and post-petiolular glands minute or 0; leaves petioled, (1) 1.5-4.5 cm long, with scarcely margined rachis and (1) 2-5(6) pairs of narrowly to broadly elliptic, either obtuse and mucronulate or acute, flat or marginally elevated, often red-edged leaflets 2.5-12 mm long; peduncles terminal to each stem or branch, 1.5-10 (14) cm long; spikes moderately dense, at early anthesis ovoid or oblong becoming cylindroid, without petals 7—10 (13) mm diam, the hirsutulous axis 1-5 (6.5) cm long; bracts persistent until fall of calyx, ovate- or lance- acuminate, 3-6.6 mm long, membranous-margined and boat-shaped proximally, livid distally, thinly pilose dorsally with hairs minutely thickened at base, glabrous within; calyx 2.8-4 mm long, densely loosely silky-pilose, the tube 1.3-1.8 mm long, recessed behind the banner, the usually livid ribs filiform but finally prominent, the intervals hyaline, faintly minutely glandular, the teeth linear-subulate from a deltate base, 1.2-2 mm long; petals dull purplish-blue or pinkish, the banner with a pale, 2-lobed eye, the keel (detached) almost as long or a trifle longer than the banner, the epistemonous petals perched well below middle of androecium, ± 0.7-1.5 mm above hypanthium; banner 2.7-4.2 mm long, the claw 1.6-2.4 mm, the triangular- or suborbicular-cordate blade 1.1-1.9 mm long, 1.3-1.8 mm wide; wings 2.8-3.7 mm long, the claw 1.1-2.1 mm, the oblong-oval blades 1.5-2.2 mm long; keel (2.4) 2.6-4 mm long, the claws 0.8-2.1 mm, the ovate blades 1.6-2.8 mm long; androecium 7-10-merous, 3.5-4.5 mm long, the longer filaments free for 0.7-1 mm, the purplish anthers 0.25-0.35 mm long; pod obliquely obovoid or triangular-obovoid in profile, 2.1-2.4 mm long, the latero-terminal style-base ± 0.4 mm long, the body compressed but plump, the dorsal crest slender, the prow filiform, the valves hyaline and glabrous in lower 2/3, thinly papery and villosulous distally; n = 7 (Spellenberg, 1973); 2n = 14 (Mosquin). — Collections: 52 (xiii).

    Glades and sunny banks in pine or pine-oak forest, sometimes colonial and weedy along roadside banks and ditches, 1960-2700 m (6550-9000 ft), common within and around the periphery of Valley of Mexico in Mexico (Edo and D. F.), adjoining Morelos, Puebla (on e. slope of Ixtaccihuatl) and Hidalgo (environs of Pachuca), w. along the Cordillera Neovolcanica through Michoacan as far as Volcan Paricutin and Zamora; disjunctly in Sierra Madre Occidental in s. Chihuahua (about Parral) and centr. Durango. — Flowering (August) September to December. — Representative: Chihuahua: Pennell 18,923 (GH), 19,139 (NY). Durango: Ripley & Barneby 13,995 (CAS, NY), 13,964 (CAS, DAO, MEXU, NY, US). MichoacAn: Ripley & Barneby 13,404 (MEXU, MICH, NY, US), 14,072 (CAS, NY, US); Spellenberg 2964 (NY). Mexico (incl. D.F.): Bourgeau 938 (BR, K, L, P); Hinton 4880 (F, NY, Z); Matuda 26,541, 27,699 (MEXU, NY); Ripley & Barneby 13,389 (CAS, MEXU, NY, US). Morelos: Pringle 7049 (NY, US). Puebla: Gentry 12,118 (USNA). Hidalgo: Alexander 1752 (NY, UC); Ripley & Barneby 13,634 (CAS, MEXU, NY, US).

    Dalea reclinata (Cav.) Willd., Sp. Pl. 3: 1340. 1801, based on Psoralea reclinata (prone, seldom appropriate) Cav., Ic. 1: 60, pl. 87. 1791. — "Habitat in Mexico...vidi vivam [in hort. regio Matritensi]." — Holotypus, MA (herb. Cav.)! — Petalostemon reclinatus (Cav.) Steud., Nomencl. Bot. ed 2, 2: 408. 1841. Parosela reclinata (Cav.) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 101. 1920, quoad nom., exclus. descr.

    Parosela pilifera (pilose) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 75. 1920.— "Type collected at Pachuca, Hidalgo, September 1905, Purpus 1741, in part..." —Holotypus, so annotated by Rydberg, NY! isotypus, US! — Daleapilifera (Rydb.) Bullock, Kew Bull. 1939: 197. 1939.

    Parosela townsendii (Charles Henry Tyler Townsend, 1863- ) Rydb., N. Amer. Fl. 24: 76. 1920 ("Townsendii"). — "Type collected in the Sierra Madre near Colonia Garcia [s. Chihuahua, near 106° W], September 4, 1899, Townsend & Barber 301" — Holotypus, US! isotypi, F, K, NY, Z!

    Dalea argyrotricha (silver-haired) P. G. Wilson, Kew Bull. 1958: 157. 1958. — "Mexico: Federal District: camino de Toluca, 8000 ft...Oct. 1938, E. K. Balls & W. B. Gourlay B.5566..." — Holotypus, K! isotypi, NY, UC, US (p. p., mixed with D. foliolosa)!Along the middle Transverse Volcanic Belt, from Lago Chapala on the west to Pachuca on the east, and again more locally in central Sierra Madre Occidental in Durango and Chihuahua, three superficially similar annual daleas, D. reclinata, D. leporina, and D. thouini may sometimes be found growing together or in near proximity. They are alike in habit, in green foliage, and in narrow cylindric spikes of silvery calyces borne terminal to the main stem and principal branches, and are often confused in herbaria. The present species, D. reclinata, differs from the rest in its valvately adherent keel-blades, typical of subgen. Parosela, but the petals are very small and fugitive and in practice it is more easily recognized by the presence on the upper stem and foliage of long weak spiral hairs, silvery when fresh but eventually rufescent when dried. The two other species have the free or imbricate keel-blades of subgen. Dalea and are glabrous up to the flower-spikes; D. leporina differs further in its many leaflets and deciduous interfloral bracts, D. thouini in its internally silky bracts and gland-sprinkled petals.

    The bicentric dispersal of D. reclinata is shared by D. thouini and by the likewise annual but very different D. obreniformis. None of this trio seems to have developed significantly different forms in the two segments of their range. Rydberg’s P. townsendii was based on a collection from Chihuahua supposed to differ from P. pilifera of southern Mexico in its broader and more broadly scarious-margined bracts. Now that more material is available from Sierra Madre the bracts are seen to be variable in length and outline, as often in the genus, and Rydberg’s segregate cannot be maintained at any taxonomic level.

    In open forest around the periphery of the Valley of Mexico as formerly on hills rising from the valley floor, D. reclinata is one of the common late summer annuals and was, rather naturally, one of the first members of the genus to reach European gardens, being described by Cavanilles as early as 1791. The name was misunderstood by Rydberg, who was unaware of specimens preserved by Cavanilles in Madrid, and transferred the epithet to the prostrate form of D. sericea described below as var. humistrata. Rydberg may well have been led astray by the epithet reclinata, descriptive of the Oaxacan perennial dalea he had in mind, but inappropriate to the usually erect annual that is its proper owner. The initial mistake led to the description of P. pilifera, which is exactly Psoralea reclinata Cav. In describing D. argyrotricha, Wilson seems to have overlooked D. pilifera and P. townsendii entirely.