Astragalus daleae Greene, Pittonia

Castillón, Eduardo Estrada, Quintanilla, José Ángel Villarreal, Delgado-Salinas, Alfonso & Rebman, Jon P., 2023, The genus Astragalus (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae: Galegeae) in Mexico, Phytotaxa 586 (1), pp. 1921-1935 : 1921-1935

18. Astragalus daleae Greene, Pittonia 1(9): 153. 1888

Type:— Mexico, Durango, Sierra Madre , west of Durango, September and October 1881, A. Forrer s.n. (Holotype NDG 26906 digital image!; isotype: GH 00059410 digital image!)

Perennial. Stems up to 47 cm long, strigose, the trichomes up to 0.5 mm long, appressed. Stipules 2–10 mm long, ovate to lanceolate. Leaves 3–7.6 cm long, leaflets 15–31, 2–10 mm long, oblong, elliptic, elliptic-obovate to obovate. Peduncles 4–11 cm long, straight or barely curved; the racemes 3–8.3 cm long, dense, flowers 20–68 pendulous; bracts 2–7 mm long, elliptic, boat shaped, ascendant when young, deflexed with age, strigose to glabrate abaxially. Flowers pale-yellow*, white-greenish to ochroleucous; the calyx 2.6–3.6 × 2.5 mm, campanulate, the tube 1.9–2.5 mm long, the teeth 0.8–1.1 mm long, wide-triangular to subulate; the banner 5.6–6.5 × 4.4–5 mm, ovate to suborbicular; the wings 6–6.2 mm × 1.2–1.3 mm, the claw 2.8–2.9 mm long, the blade 3–3.2 mm long, oblong, the keel 4.7–5.4 × 2–2.3 mm, the claw 2.8–2.9 mm long, the blade 2.8–2.9 mm long. Pod persistent or tardily separating from receptacle, 7–12 × 2 mm, deflexed, sessile, triquetrous, linear, lancoelate to oblong, straight to curved, basally rounded, the apex ending in a cuspidate contracted beak, compressed, dorsally sulcate, laterally mildly convex but abruptly rounded, the valves thin, somewhat papery, turning harder with age, green when young, turning black with age, strigose, the trichomes mostly white with some scattered black ones mixed, septum complete, thence bilocular; ovules 9–11; seeds 1.2–1.7 mm long, ligh brown, olive-brown, smooth.

Distribution:— Mountains of northwestern Mexico, Chihuahua, (among Yepachi, Tomochi and Uruachi) and Durango (around Tepehuanes, Canelas, Topia and El Salto) ( Fig. 5 ).

Habitat:— Sandy soils, near river; steep cliffs; with riparian vegetation; cold coniferous forests; open and moist slopes; cool conifer forest; pine-oak forest; associations with pine-juniper-oak-madrone; 2000–2620 m.

Comments:— Morphologically similar to A. vaccarum , but this one, having plane bracts. * D. E. Breedlove 63018 (NY).

Specimens examined:— CHIHUAHUA: 12 September 1987, Parque Nacional de la Cascada de Basaseachic, along benches of Rio Bassasechic about 100 m above falls, R. W. Spellenberg 9288, D. Jewell ( NY) ; DURANGO: 12 August 1961, Puerto Buenos Aires, 30 miles southwest of El Salto , U. T. Waterfall 16211 ( NY) ; 12 August 1956, Durango, Mexico, Mountain side near steep cliffs, 33 miles southwest of El Salto , U. T. Waterfall 12715 ( CAS, TEX, US) ; 24 August 1986, Just S of Puerto Buenas Aires along Mexican Hwy 40 between Mazatlan and Durango , D. E. Breedlove 63018, B. Anderson ( NY) ; 6 October 1965, Crest of Sierra Madre near Pto. Buenos Aires, 34 mi. w. of El Salto on Mazatlan highway, H. D. Ripley 1406, R. C. Barneby ( NY) ; 18 October 1965, Sierra Madre 20 miles w. of El Salto, H. D. D. Ripley 14187 ( NY) ; 18 August 1982, 111 road mi. NW of Santiago Papasquiaro, on road to Topia , 5 mi. W of Cienaga Nuestra Señora, R. W. Spellenberg 6715 ( MEXU) ; 6 October 1965, Crest of Sierra Madre near Pto. Buenos Aires, 34 mi. w. of El Salto on Mazatlan highway, H. D. Ripley 14006 ( NY) . SINALOA: September 1919, Panuco , municipio de Concordia, M. P. Dehesa 1585 (CalBG: RSA, Image, Catalog number: RSA 0006892) .

Figures

FIGURE 5. Map showing the distribution of Astragalus crotalariae, A. daleae, A. coccineus, A. didymocarpus var. didymarpus, A. didymocarpus var. dispermus, and A. didymocarpus var. obispoensis in Mexico.