Astragalus praelongus var. Ellisiae

  • Title

    Astragalus praelongus var. Ellisiae

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae (Rydb.) Barneby

  • Description

    184b. Astragalus praelongus var. Ellisiae

    Calyx-teeth subulate or lance-attenuate, 2-5.5 mm. long; stipe of the pod 1-2.5 mm. long, the body ellipsoid, oblong-ellipsoid, or narrowly clavate-ellipsoid, straight or gently incurved, 1.8-3.4 cm. long, (5) 6-10 (11) mm. in diameter, rounded or shallowly sulcate dorsally, either strigulose, or puberulent along the sutures, or glabrous.—Collections: 47 (x); representative: Ripley & Barneby 4700, 4730, 5421, 5399 (all RSA); Jones (from Price, Utah) in 1896 (CAS, NY, POM); Eggleston 20,063 (NY); A. A. & E. G. Heller 3668 (ND, NY); Barneby 12,608 (CAS, RSA); Warnock 8392 (SMU, SRSC, TEX).

    Habitats of var. praelongus, 2800-6500 (6900) feet, of bicentric distribution: locally abundant in the Colorado Basin of Utah and Colorado south of Tavaputs Escarpment, there sometimes (cf. map) intergrading with var. praelongus; again locally plentiful along the east side of the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, from Santa Fe County south to Mesilla Valley, east in scattered stations to the head of the Canadian River, the Pecos Valley, and just into extreme western Texas (Bailey, Martin, and Midland Counties).—Map No. 73.—April to July.

    Astragalus praelongus var. Ellisiae (Rydb.) Barneby ap. B. L. Turner, Legum. Tex. 190. 1959, based on Jonesiella Ellisiae (Charlotte Cortland Ellis, 1874- , nurse and plant collector) Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24 : 403. 1929.—"Type collected in the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico, April 30, 1914, Charlotte C. Ellis 421 ... ’’—Holotypus, US! isotypi, MO, NY!— Astragalus Ellisiae (Rydb.) C. L. Porter ex Beath & al. in Amer. Jour. Bot. 28 : 888. 1941.

    At anthesis var. Ellisiae is indistinguishable from var. praelongus. The narrow fruit is the only practical differential character, and as I have already indicated, there are many instances of intergradation even in this feature. The following collections demonstrate the confluence of the two varieties: W. A. Weber 4743 (CAS, OKLA, SMU, TEX, WS); C. F. Baker 278 (ND, NY); Payson 352 (WS). The holotypus of Jonesiella recedens might be added to this list, but the pod (as in all isotypi examined) is unripe and its ultimate diameter unknown. Since it seems reasonable to assume that it represents the same entity as that found downstream along the San Juan around Aztec and Bloomfield, the species has been referred to the synonymy of var. praelongus. The bicentric dispersal of var. Ellisiae is unusual in the genus and leads one to suspect that the variety, as defined in these pages, embraces two independent but parallel evolutionary lines divergent from var. praelongus. In support of this view I must add that the modes of variation are not identical in the two lobes of the variety’s range. In the Colorado Basin the pod is more often pubescent than glabrous, and it tends to spread from the raceme-axis at variable but sometimes wide angles. In the southeastern area the pod is most commonly erect and glabrous, and more often sulcate dorsally than terete. However, since it is possible to select identical pods from each area, no practical method has been found to distinguish the individual members of what seem to be incipient geographic varieties.

    The type-locality of J. Ellisiae is actually on the northwest slope of the Sandia Mountains near Tijeras, Bernalillo County. The variety was apparently first collected near Albuquerque in 1846 by Dr. Wislizenus (MO).