Marina vetula (Brandegee) Barneby

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

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.

Family

Fabaceae

Scientific Name

Marina vetula (Brandegee) Barneby

Type

based on Dalea vetula (little old, perhaps in reference to the white-hairy flower-spikes) Brandg., Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. II, 2: 146. 1889. — "Comondu, San Gregorio." — Holotypus, collected by T. S. Brandegee at Comondu, 2 Mar 1889, UC! no material label

Synonyms

Dalea vetula Brandegee, Parosela vetula (Brandegee) Rose, Dalea bechtelii Wiggins

Description

Species Description - Annuals from a slender orange taproot, 1-3.5 dm tall, glabrous up to the silky- pilosulous inflorescence (some upper stipules sometimes minutely ciliolate), either simple and erect or (more commonly) with an erect central stem and 1-several incurved-ascending from near the ground, the branches simple or few-forked, floriferous from near middle upward, all smooth but remotely gland-punctate, purplish and finally pruinose at base, the foliage greenish-glaucescent, the leaflets of thick texture, lineolate both sides, minutely pallid-punctate beneath; leaf-spurs 0.5-1 mm long; stipules linear-attenuate or narrowly subulate, 1-3 mm long, greenish or livid becoming dry and fragile; intrapetiolular gland minute; post-petiolular glands small, immersed or barely prominent; main cauline leaves 2.5-7 cm long, shortly petioled, with narrowly margined rachis and (8) 10-22 pairs of suborbicular, emarginate, flat leaflets 0.8-2.6 mm long diminishing upward along rachis, the terminal leaflet lanceolate, 2-3 times longer than the last pair; peduncles erect, all leaf-opposed, (0.4) 1-10 cm long, the lower ones usually elongate and the later ones (sometimes all) short; racemes narrowly lance-oblong in outline, tapering distally in bud, moderately dense, at and after anthesis 8-11 mm diam, the flowers ± 3-ranked when pressed, the thinly villosulous axis becoming (1) 1.5-9 cm long; bracts tardily deciduous, lance-acuminate or -caudate, 2.5-5 mm long, pale green or purplish, glabrous or thinly pilosulous dorsally, ciliolate and minutely gland-denticulate on margins; pedicels 0.2-0.4 mm long, charged at base with a pair of spicules and toward apex with a pair of minute glands; calyx at anthesis 4-4.8 mm long (a trifle accescent in age), densely pilose with stiff, incurved-ascending hairs up to 0.7-1.1 mm long, the shallow tube ± 1 mm long, the ribs slender becoming prominent, green or brownish, the membranous intervals (extending well above the sinuses between teeth) charged with one row of 4-5 elliptic, orange or golden glands, the lance-acuminate teeth 3.3-3.8 mm long, with long plane herbaceous tips, all of nearly equal length, the ventral pair a trifle wider; petals purplish-blue or pinkish, all (or at least the banner) minutely gland-sprinkled, the small inner petals scarcely differentiated in shape, free, perched ± 0.5 mm below separation of the filaments; banner 2.3-3.2 mm long, the claw 1.1-2 mm, the flabellate-obdeltate blade open at base, 1-1.2 mm long, 1.2-1.6 mm wide; wing- and keel-petals 1.5-1.9 mm long, the claws 0.2-0.3 mm, the obovate, shortly or obscurely auriculate blades 1.3-1.7 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide; androecium 9-, rarely 10-merous, 3.5-4.8 mm long, the filaments free and purple for 1.2-1.6 mm, the connective glandular, the anthers yellow, 0.35-0.4 mm long; pod 2.6-3.3 mm long, strongly compressed, harp-shaped in profile, the style-base lateral, the prow purplish, slender but prominent, the valves thinly papery and transparent throughout, thinly pilosulous, charged with 2 gland-crescents, the distal one subhorizontal, the other vertical; seed olivaceous, lustrous, 1.6-2 mm long. — Collections: 22 (o).

Distribution and Ecology - Stony hills, arroyo beds, gravel flats, sometimes sheltering under shrubs, best known and apparently not uncommon, mostly at 10-800 m (35-2700 ft) but ascending on Cerro Giganta to 1260 m (4200 ft), in the small segment of Baja California Sur extending from the s. end of Sierra Giganta near lat. 24° 50' N n.-ward on both slopes of the Sierra through Bahia Concepcion and Mulege to Santa Rosalia and San Ignacio near lat. 27° 20' N; one record from the e. coast of Baja California (Edo) near lat. 30° N; Isla Tiburon (s.-w. side of island near El Sauz), lat. 26° 52' N in Gulf of California; remotely disjunct on volcanic cones in Prosopis grassland near 1500 m in Valle de Acatita (s. of Rancho Los Charcos) at the edge of Mapiirri Depression, near 26° S in s.-w. Coahuila. —Flowering on the Pacific slope August to November, February to April, in Coahuila August and September.

Discussion

(Plate XI)

The combination in M. vetula of an annual root with a degenerate corolla so small and so fugacious that it can play no part in attracting pollinators is matched elsewhere in Marina only by M. evanescens. The androecium of M. evanescens is reduced further than that of M. vetula, but its calyx and foliage are only slightly modified from patterns familiar in ser. Chysorrhizae, so that the species seems safely interpreted as a specialized derivative of the stock from which the sympatric M. peninsularis and M. chrysorrhiza originated. By contrast M. vetula is so different in detail from all congeners, sympatric or not, that firm clues to its kinship have been lost. The remarkable leaves, with their tiny round carnosulous lateral leaflets surmounted by a much longer, lanceolate terminal one, the deeply cleft calyx, and the membranous pod with lateral style-base, all in one way or another are unique features. The form (but not the texture) of the pod recalls that of the southern Mexican M. gracilis, which is also annual and also glabrous to the spikes, but the resemblances stop at that point. The petals of M. vetula are gland-sprinkled as in ser. Chrysorrhizae, but the banner-blade is differently shaped. Following Rydberg, I regard M. vetula as a taxonomically isolated monotype.

The description of D. bechtelii as a species distinct from M. vetula can be explained only in terms of a momentary lapse of memory. It was compared in the protologue not with any related marina, but with Thombera pringlei, a true dalea which it resembles only in having free keel petals. The type-locality of D. bechtelii lies in the middle of the relatively small peninsular range of M. vetula, and the isotype I have seen is in all respects typical of the latter species.

Distribution

Coahuila Mexico North America| Baja California Mexico North America| Coahuila Mexico North America| Mexico North America|