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Dalea brachystachya

Dalea brachystachya A. Gray

Fort Bowie Prairie Clover

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s): Dalea lemmonii

USDA Symbol: DABR

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Low, slender or subfiliorm herbs, commonly monocarpic, always flowering early the tirst year of growth and sometimes enduring into a second season, the root then lignescent but not over 3 mm diam, except for minutely ciliolate stipules glabrous to the spikes, with (1) 3-many, diffuse or both diffuse and assurgent, smooth or sparsely verruculose, pallid or purplish, simple or sparingly branched stems (0.5) 1-3.5 (4) dm long, thinly leafy and usually fertile from near middle upward, sometimes throughout or only terminally, the peduncles mostiy leaf-opposed (but terminal to some ultimate branchlets and to primary stems when depauperate), the foliage pale green or commonly glaucescent, the leaflets smooth and yellowish above, often red-edged, paler and livid-punctate beneath." (bibref: 1812).

"An inconspicuous little plant, with slender, sparsely leafy stems and small heads of flower that become stiffly barbate as the fruits mature, each calyx resembling and functioning as a Composite achene and pappus. The species is the only one at once glabrous to the spikes, annual or short-lived perennial in duration, and yellow-flowered, and is therefore easily recognized, at least at anthesis. Unhke the majority of annual daleas, D. brachystachya is rarely weedy, although when it does happen to seed into roadside gravels it profits from the increased water run-off and grows fat and leafy. In undisturbed grassland the plants vary from very slender, with few monocephalous stems incurved-ascending from the root-crown, to many-stemmed and relatively coarse, each axis then bearing a succession of leaf-opposed spikes elevated on slender or almost threadlike peduncles. The bracts are at least incipiently dimorphic, those at base of the spike broader and less densely ciliolate than the interfloral ones, sometimes forming a sort of involucre. The calyx-teeth also vary considerably in length, but are seldom shorter than the tube and usually longer than the corolla. As the pods mature the calyx-teeth diverge into a star, the plumose cihae at the same time spreading widely." (bibref: 1812).

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual , Biennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems 1 to 2 feet high." (reslit 2889).
Leaf: "Leaf-spurs almost 0; stipules subulate, narrowly triangular or subulate-attentuate, 0.8-2.5 mm long, becoming brown and fragile; intrapetlolular glands 0 or minute; post-petiolular glands small, sometimes prominulous, golden or livid; leaves short-petiolate, 8-25 (30) mm long, with narrowly margined, sparsely vermculose rachis and (1) 2-5 pairs of oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, emarginate, usuaUy loosely folded leaflets 2-14 (16) mm long, the terminal one nearly always longer than the last pair, either sessile with them or shortly stalked and solitary." (bibref: 1812). "Petioles short: rhachis sparingly glandular, and usually with a pair of larger glands at the insertion of the leaflets. Leaflets commonly 11 or 13, thickish, 3 lines long, remarkably silvery and shining, especially above, with a close and fine silky pubescence." (reslit 2889).
Flower: "Peduncles very slender or subfiliform, 1-7 cm long (rarely subobsolete), longer than the opposed leaf, often arched outward from the stem and abruptly incurved under the spike; spikes conic-ovoid becoming ovoid, globose, or shortly oblong, without petals 8-11 (12) mm diam, the hispidulous axis ultimately 3-16 mm long; bracts rather tardily deciduous, rhombic-ovate- to lance-acuminate or -caudate, 2.5-6 mm long, the lowest glabrous dorsally but ciliate below middle, the upper ones often thinly pilose dorsally, plumose-ciliate, all prominently glandular dorsally, commonly livid-purplish, glabrous within; calyx (3.5) 4.4-5.8 (6) mm long, densely pilose with straight spiral, at first forwardly subappressed, soon spreading hairs up to 0.7-1.4 (1.7) mm long, the tube (1.5) 1.6-2.1 mm, not recessed behind banner, the ribs brownish, prominulous, the membranous intervals charged with 1 row of about 3 small, yellow or transparent, sometimes obsolete glands, the teeth triangular-aristate, gland-tipped and -spurred, at first erect, finally stellately divergent, the longest (1.5) 2.4-4 mm long, with rare exceptions longer than tube; petals pale but clear yellow, fading pinkish-brown or brownish-purple, usually eglandular, the epistemonous ones perched well below middle of androecium; banner 2-3.4, rarely 5.2-6 mm long, the ventrally sulcate claw 0.8-2 (2.4) mm, the deltate-ovate or -cordate blade mostly 1-2, rarely 4 mm long, about as wide, the basal lobes confluent across top of claw but hardly elevated to form a cornet; wings 2.1-3.4 (4.8) mm long, the claw 0.8-1.5 (1.7-2.1) mm, the ovate-triangular blades 1-2 (2.9) mm long, 0.7-1.1 (1.6-1.8) mm wide; keel (2.6) 3-4.3 (5.8-6.2) mm long, the claws (1) 1.2-1.9 (2.8) mm, the oblong-ovate or -obovate blades 1.8-2.8 (3.8) mm long, 1.3-2 (2.4) mm wide; androecium (9) 10-merous, 3.5-5.5 (6.8) mm long, the longer filaments free for 1-1.4 (1.7-2) mm, the connective gland-tipped, the pallid or yellowish anthers 0.3-0.45 (0.6) mm long." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod 2.3-2.6 mm long, in profile triangular-obovate, the style-base at or below the distal corner, the prow slightly dilated, green or becoming brown or livid, the valves hyaline in lower 1/2, thence thinly papery, pilosulous, sometimes obscurely gland-sprinkled; seed 1.4-1.7 mm long." (bibref: 1812).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink , Yellow , Purple , Brown
Bloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Aug , Sep , Oct , Nov
Bloom Notes: "Petals pale but clear yellow, fading pinkish-brown or brownish-purple." (bibref: 1812).

Distribution

USA: AZ , MD , NM , TX
Native Distribution: "Widespread and locally abundant, especially but not exclusively on limestone, over the Mexican Plateau and the Chihuahuan Desert, from Aguas Calientes and San Luis Potosi northward into southwestern United States, extending from San Luis Potosi southeast. through Hidalgo probably just into extreme northern Mexico and, apparendy disjunctly, to the Tehuacan Desert in southeast Puebla; to be expected in Oaxaca (cf. discussion of D. lachnantha Schauer); in United States from Trans-Pecos Texas (Davis Mountains, Jeff Davis Co.) to southeastern Arizona (Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima counties) and thence marginally into Sonora, in New Mexico northward up Rio Grande valley to northeastern Socorro County and one old station (not veritied recently) on the headwaters of the Pecos in San Miguel County." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Desert grassland, cactus desert, mesquite-thom scrub, or creosote (Larrea) desert, northward entering high short-grass prairie, 1300-2430 m ( � 4300-8100 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.

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Additional resources

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

Metadata

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

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