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Dalea sabinalis

Dalea sabinalis (S. Watson) Shinners

Sabinal Prairie Clover

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s): Petalostemon sabinalis

USDA Symbol: DASA

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Perennial herbs 2.5-5 (6) dm tall, glabrous up to the ciliolate orifice of the calyces, the smooth or distally striate, sparsely gland-sprinkled but scarcely verruculose stems diffuse or assurgent, at anthesis leafless at base but equably leafy thence up to the solitary terminal spike, a few upper leaf-axils sometimes giving rise to short sterile branchlets, the foliage glaucescent, the thick-textured leaflets smooth above, pallid and finely brown-punctate beneath." (bibref: 1812).

"A rare species, seldom collected and poorly understood, but evidently a close relative of the allopatric Texan D. bartoni and the New Mexican D. scariosa, all having the same asymmetric calyx, glabrous below the ciliolate orifice, and except for the white coloring of D. bartoni, essentially the same perianth." (bibref: 1812).

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb , Subshrub
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "2.5-5 (6) dm tall." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Leaf-spurs 0.1-0.6 mm long; stipules linear-caudate, (0.8) 1.2-3.5 mm long, early dry and fragile; intrapetlolular glands minute, impressed, sometimes 0; post-petiolular glands small, prominulous; leaves short-petioled, the main cauline ones 2-4 cm long, with narrowly margined, ventrally grooved rachis and 5-8 pairs of linear-oblanceolate, bluntly gland-mucronulate leaflets 7-15 mm long, the leaves of axillary spurs, if present, shorter, with fewer smaller leaflets." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Peduncles 6-12 cm long; spikes many-flowered, becoming moderately loose, without petals 6.5-8 mm diam, the spreading-ascending calyces not concealing the glabrous axis, this becoming 4-9 cm long; bracteolar spicules 0.4-0.7 mm long; calyx 3-3.3 mm long, obliquely obovoid-pyriform, glabrous extemally, the gray-glaucescent tube glabrous, eglandular, 2.3-2.5 mm, pleated when dry, the recessed dorsal sinus broader than the rest, the 3 ventral teeth narrowly triangular-subulate, the 2 ventral ones deltate-acuminulate, all externally gland-pustulate, minutely ciliolate; petals pink, in size and shape as those of D. bartoni; androecium 5-6 mm long, the column and free tilaments of subequal length." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod very obliquely obovoid, about 3 mm long, the style-base latero-terminal, the short ventral suture concave, the strongly bowed dorsal one slender-keeled around the convex prow, the valves membranous but heavily castaneous-lineolate in lower 1/3, thence firm, minutely gland-verruculose, glabrous except for the minutely ciliolate ventral suture and style-base; seed 1.5-2.1 mm long." (bibref: 1812).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink
Bloom Time: Apr , May
Bloom Notes: "Petals pink." (bibref: 1812).

Distribution

USA: TX
Native Distribution: "Rare and local around the southern edge of Edwards Plateau in Val Verde, Uvalde, and Bandera counties, in southwest Texas." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Open hillsides on limestone." (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.

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Additional resources

USDA: Find Dalea sabinalis in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Dalea sabinalis in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Dalea sabinalis

Metadata

Record Modified: 2020-12-07
Research By: Joseph A. Marcus

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