Dalea ayavacensis var. killipii

Title

Dalea ayavacensis var. killipii

Author(s)

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Dalea ayavacensis var. killipii (J.F.Macbr.) Barneby

Description

78b. Dalea ayavacensis Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth var. killipii (Macbride) Barneby

(Plate LXXX)

Foliage silvery, apparently permanently, the leaflets densely silky-pilose both sides; spikes 16-19 mm diam, becoming 4-12 cm long; calyx-tube glabrous externally, the plumose teeth up to 3.9-4.2 mm long.— Collections: 2 (o).

Habitat not recorded, but to be sought in brushy places near 2500 m, known only from the Andes of s. Ecuador in Cuenca and Azuay. — Flowering July to September.—Material: Cuenca: typus. Azuay: eastern Cordillera n. of village Sevilla de Oro, Camp E-4551 (F, K, NY, UC, US).

Dalea ayavacensis H. B. K. var. killipii (Macbr.) Barneby, stat. nov., based on Parosela killipii (Ellsworth Paine Killip, 1890-19 ) Macbr., Field Mus., Bot. 4: 110. 1927 ("Killippii"). — "Ecuador: vicinity of Nabon, Sept. 26, 1918, Rose, Pachano & Rose 23033..."— Holotypus, US! isotypi, GH, NY!— Dalea killipii (Macbr.) Macbr., Candollea 7: 223. 1937.

A handsome dalea, notable for the silvery foliage and long narrow spikes of flowers alternating with sigmoidally spreading, teasel-like bracts. The pubescence is matched on younger leaves of var. ayavacensis collected at Loxa by Hartweg, but the adult leaves of the latter are green. The small flower, and especially the short androecium, are the only real differential characters, but the petals (at least of Camp E-4551) appear to have been pale milky blue, not the vivid blue or violet-blue of var. ayavacensis. According to Camp the plants in Azuay were flowering as erect herbs with a single stem rising from yellow roots and branching distally into more or less flat-topped panicle of spikes. These, however, were doubtless juvenile individuals, due to become bushy and suffruticose in age.