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Psorothamnus thompsoniae var. whitingii
Psorothamnus thompsoniae (Vail) S.L. Welsh & N.D. Atwood var. whitingii (Kearney & Peebles) Barneby
Whiting's Dalea
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s): Dalea whitingii
USDA Symbol: PSTHW
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Tall freely branching, lavishly floriferous shrubs of rounded or depressed-rounded outline, 4-9 (15) dm tall and often as much in diameter, rather softly woody but the short sterile branchlets immediately below the inflorescences tapering into vulnerant, often divaricately bifurcate, persistent spines, the stems densely silky-pilosulous with narrowly descending (retrorse) hairs up to 0.2-0.4 mm long and pustulate with prominent orange blister- or prickle-shaped glands, the foliage more thinly strigulose-pilosulous than the canescent stems, commonly greenish, the leaflets usually more densely pubescent above than beneath, the lower face paucipunctate." (bibref: 1812).
"On present evidence this is an extraordinarily rare shrub, though hardly more so than Errazurizia rotundata or Psorothamnus arborescens var. pubescens, which are also endemic to the same general area of the Colorado Canyonlands. It seems probable that other populations will eventually be discovered, as the maze of box canyons leading to the Colorado river are more fully explored. According to June Beasley, who kindly undertook to collect material at the type-locality, downstream from Black Falls on Little Colorado River, the plants are locally plentiful there on a particular bench along the river. Cutler also described the plants as locally abundant in Copper Canyon." (bibref: 1812).
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Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Shrub
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "4-9 (15) dm tall." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Leaf-spurs up to 0.6 mm long; stipules triangular, 0.2-0.9 mm long, deciduous, charged at apex and often on margins with 1-3 glands; leaves short-petioled, (1) 1.4-3 cm long, with narrowly margined, punctate rachis and 3-8 (9) pairs of obovate to linear-oblanceolate, obtuse to emarginate, flat or loosely folded, thick-textured leaflets 2-7 mm long, sometimes decurrent." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Peduncles terminal to branchlets, 0.5-1.5 cm long; racemes loose and open, the flowers spreading at full anthesis, the glabrous or puberulent axis becoming (1) 2-9 cm long; bracts early deciduous, ovate-elliptic, submembranous, 0.6-1.5 mm long, gland-tipped; pedicels spreading-ascending, 0.7-1.4 mm long, charged near apex with a pair of orange glands; calyx 3.7-5 mm long, either pilosulous throughout with spreading hairs up to 0.3-0.5 mm long or glabrous up to the margins of the ciliolate, internally silky-pubescent calyx-teeth, the tube 2.4-3.3 mm long (measured to lateral sinus), the dorsal sinus shallower than the rest and the orifice hence oblique, the ribs prominent but not cordlike, the firm, pleated intervals charged above middle with 1-4 large red-orange glands, the teeth ovate to oblong-ovate, obtuse to subacute, gland-mucronulate, herbaceous, obscurely 3-nerved below apex, very unequal, the ventral pair nearly twice as broad and longer than the rest, 1.1-2.3 mm long; petals bright pink- or violet-purple marcescent, glabrous, all glandless or the banner sometimes charged on back with a subapical gland; banner (5.5) 6-8.4 mm long, the claw (1.8) 2.2-2.5 mm, the ovate, basally broadly cuneate or cordate, sometimes suborbicular-cordate, notched blade (4.4) 4.8-6.2 mm long, (4.2) 4.8-6 mm wide; wings 7.6-8.6 mm long, the claw 2-2.7 mm, the oblong obtuse blade 5.8-6.6 mm long, 2.6-3.2 mm wide; keel (only a trifle longer than wings) 7.4-9 mm long, the claws (1.9) 2.1-3.2 mm, the broadly obovate blades 5.6-6.7 mm long, 3.4-3.8 mm wide; androecium 10-merous, 6-7.7 mm long, the longer filaments free for 2.5-3.5 mm, the connective gland-tipped, the anthers 0.8-0.9 mm long." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod 4-4.5 mm long, compressed, membranous and glabrous at base, thence firm, rugulose, pilosulous, gross-glandular; ovules 2 (3); seed 1, 2.1-2.6 mm long." (bibref: 1812).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: Pink , Purple , VioletBloom Time: Jun , Jul , Aug
Bloom Notes: "Petals bright pink- or violet-purple marcescent." (bibref: 1812).
Distribution
USA: AZ , CO , UTNative Distribution: "Forming colonies but very local, known only from two widely separated stations: Copper Canyon, a wash descending northwesterly from Monumen t Valley to the San Juan River in San Juan County, Utah; on banks of Little Colorado River within Wupatki National Monument, Coconino County, Arizona." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Sandy clay banks and talus in canyons, on red sandstone, below 1500 m (5000 ft)." (bibref: 1812).
Additional resources
USDA: Find Psorothamnus thompsoniae var. whitingii in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Psorothamnus thompsoniae var. whitingii in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Psorothamnus thompsoniae var. whitingii
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus