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Dalea exigua
Dalea exigua Barneby
Chihuahuan Prairie Clover, Frail Prairie Clover
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s): Petalostemon exilis
USDA Symbol: DAEX2
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Slender, erect annual herbs, 1-4 (4.5) dm tall, strict and monocephalous, or few-branched with strictly ascending to divaricate-incurved, monocephalous branches from below or near the middle, or exceptionally 3-4-stemmed from near the base, the stiff stems purplish at base, green and angled upward, smooth, not or very sparsely gland-punctate, the foliage appearing glabrous but the leaflets charged above, along or near the margins, with a few fine, weak, scattered hairs." (bibref: 1812).
"This is an inconspicuous, rather weedy dalea, its sparse foliage and narrow heads of minute, vivid pink-purple but fugacious flowers often well camouflaged by the tangle of late summer annuals and grasses among which it delights to grow. Its open forest habitat in northern Sierra Madre is shared by the habitally similar D. filiformis/i>, distinguished by its leaves of exactly three, threadlike, truly hairless leaflets and by looser and shorter spikes of fewer flowers. The rare D. confusa occurs within the range of D. exigua in Chihuahua, at the same elevation but confined to swales and boggy meadows, the only dalea (other than D. mountjoyae -eds.) known to require a moist habitat. This resembles D. exigua in habit and foliage, especially in its weakly ciliate leaflets, but these are about four, not two pairs in the larger stem leaves and the structure of the flower... is quite different. In number and shape of leaflets D. exigua most closely resembles the southern Mexican D. plantaginoides, but this has quite glabrous foliage and denser, hard and conelike spikes of white flowers." (bibref: 1812).
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Plant Characteristics
Duration: AnnualHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "1-4 (4.5) dm tall." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Leaf-spurs up to 1 mm long; stipules subulate, subherbaceous, 1.5-3 (4) mm long; intra-petiolular glands obsolete; post-petiolular glands very small and pallid, or obscure; leaves 1.5-5.5 cm long, petioled, the rachis narrowly margined, punctate or not, the leaflets of the main cauline leaves 3 or 5, of the upper leaves often only 1, all linear-oblanceolate to -elliptic or narrowly oblong, obtuse to acuminate but always mucronate, (0.5) 1-3.7 (4) cm long, the terminal one longest, the margins more or less thickened and elevated, the upper face bright green, the lower paler, punctate." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Peduncles erect, (2.5) 4-16 cm long; spikes dense (but hardly conelike), shortly ovoid to oblong becoming narrowly ovoid to cylindroid, without petals 5-8 mm diam, the pilosulous axis becoming (0.8) 1.3-4.5 (6) cm long; bracts persistent (falling only with the fruiting calyx), subdimorphic, the lowest 2.5-3.3 mm long, broadly deltate-ovate or rhombic, shortly apiculate, glabrous or nearly so dorsally but ciliolate at base, the interfloral ones narrower, shortly acuminate, membranous-margined at base, pilosulous dorsally and more densely ciliolate, all gland-verrucose dorsally; calyx 3.8-4.3 mm long, silky-pilose with refuscent hairs, the tube 1.9-2.2 mm long, the ribs filiform, brown, the membranous-hyaline intervals eglandular, the triangular-cuspidate to lance-aristate teeth 1.2-2.3 mm long; petals pink-purple, concolorous, fugacious, the inner ones perched just below separation of the filaments; banner 3.4-4.3 mm long, the oval-ovate blade 1.3-1.6 mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide; wings 1.7-2.3 mm long, the claws 0.3-0.4 mm, the oblongoblanceolate to obovate, truncate-emarginate blades 1.7-2.3 mm long, 0.9-1.1 mm wide, scarcely auriculate basally; keel-petals 2-2.5 mm long, the claw about 0.5 mm, the subsymmetrically oblong-oblanceolate blade 1.7-2 mm long, 1.1 mm wide; androecium 4-7-merous, 3.2-4 mm long, with only 3-6 fertile stamens, the longer filaments free for about 1 mm." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod obovate in profile, about 2.5 mm long, the style-base lateral just below the apex, the slender prow livid-margined, the valves hyaline in lower 2/3, thinly papery and pilosulous distally." (bibref: 1812).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: Pink , PurpleBloom Time: Aug , Sep , Oct , Nov
Bloom Notes: "Petals pink-purple, concolorous." (bibref: 1812).
Distribution
USA: AZ , NMNative Distribution: "Forming colonies but local, along and near the crest of northern Sierra Madre Occidental in western Chihuahua (municipios of Hidalgo del Parral, Cuauhtemoc, Madera) and northeastern Sonora (municipios of Babispe, Santa Cruz) north. to the sources of the Gila River in southeastern Arizona (Santa Cruz, Cochise, Greenlee counties.) and southwestern. New Mexico (Grant Co.)." (bibref: 1812)"
Native Habitat: "On grassy slopes and flats in pine or pine-oak woodland, 1500-2160 m (5000-7200 ft)." (bibref: 1812).
Bibliography
Bibref 1812 - Daleae imagines : an illustrated revision of Errazurizia Philippi, Psorothamnus Rydberg, Marina Leibmann, and Dalea Lucanus emend. Barneby, including all species of Leguminosae tribe Amorpheae Borissova ever referred to Dalea (1977) Barneby, Rupert C.Search More Titles in Bibliography
Additional resources
USDA: Find Dalea exigua in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Dalea exigua in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Dalea exigua
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus