Name
Acaciella tequilana var. crinita (Brandegee) L. Rico
Rico Arce & BachmanAnales del Jardín Botánico de MadridVol. 63(2): 189-244July-December 2006
Synonymy and types
Acacia crinita Brandegee, Zoe 5: 198. 1905, basion. Acaciella crinita (Brandegee) Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 105. 1928. Type: Mexico: Sinaloa, E of Culiacán, Cerro Colorado, ca. 35 km from Durango border, Brandegee s.n. (holotype, CAS). Acaciella durangensis Britton & Rose, N. Amer. Fl. 23: 105. 1928. Type: Mexico: Durango, Sianori, González Ortega 5299 (holotype [fragment], NY!; isotypes, MEXU!, US).
Formal description
Shrub up to 5 m tall, villous-hirsute with white or yellow hairs throughout. Stipules 5-8 mm long, linear, ciliate, fugacious. Leaves 13 cm long; petiole 2-2.5 cm long, terete, usually densely hirsute; rachis 1.5-8 cm long, hirsute, with 2-5 pairs of pinnae; pinnae 4-10 cm long; paraphyllidia c. 1 mm long; leaflets (4)5-9(16) pairs per pinna, 10-25 × 4-1.5(23) mm, elliptic, base rounded to oblique, apex rounded, venation brochidodromous, glabrous on both surfaces, membranaceous, insertion central. Inflorescences consisting of clusters of 2-3 axillary or terminal racemes, main axis 22-27 cm long, densely hirsute to glabrescent; peduncles 1-3(4) cm long; densely yellow-hirsute, without pearl glands; one inflorescence bract close to the flower head or near middle of the peduncle, 1.2 mm long, with long cilia, clavate, fugacious; floral bract 0.5-0.75 mm long, glabrous or with a few long hairs, lanceolate, fugacious; pedicels 0.75-1 mm long, glabrous; flowers white, cream or pink, when dry reddish, in capitulum-like racemes,18(20) mm in diam. at anthesis. Calyx 1.25 mm long, 5-lobed, almost truncate, glabrous. Corolla 4 mm long, 5-lobed, the lobes to more than half the whole corolla length, glabrous. Stamens 7 mm long. Ovary 1.5 mm long, glabrous, the stipe 1.25 mm long; basal nectary 0.35 mm high. Legume 4.5-5.5(8) × 1-1.2 × 0.2 cm, flat, straight; valves chartaceous, conspicuously reticulate-veined, glabrous, rounded at the base, acute at apex; stipe 1.3 cm long; without a conspicuous beak. Seeds 6-8 per fruit, 4-4.2 × 3-3.5 × 1.5 mm, only seen immature.
Distribution
Mexico north: Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa and Sonora.
Additional info
Habitat. In low deciduous forest, Quercus forest, mixed Pinus-Quercus forest, desertic scrub with Prosopis and Lycium; on rocky and grassy slopes. The taxon resprouts readily after grassland fires. Alt. 300- 1200 m.
Vernacular names. Gato, La nudita [lanudita, probably referring to the hairiness of the plant].
Flowering time
Flowering December to July, fruiting in March.
Representative specimens
MEXICO:
Chihuahua:
- Sierra Charuco, Río Mayo, 27º 36' N, 108º 45'05'', 800 m, 23-VII-1936, Gentry H.S. 2325 (K, MEXU, MO).
Durango:
- Sierra Tres Picos, 1000 m, 19-XII-1939, Gentry H.S. 5278 (MO);
- Sianori, 25º 13' N, 106º 47' W, 939 m, González Ortega, J. 5299 (K, MEXU).
Sinaloa:
- Guadalupe de los Reyes, Cosala, 37 km E, 24º 17' N, 106º 30' W, 900 m, 17-III-1985, Beltrán, A. 385 (FCME);
- arriba de Guadalupe de los Reyes, 24º 29' N, 106º 50' W, 1000 m, 17-III-1985, Tenorio, P. 8367 (BM, MEXU).
Sonora:
- Sierra La Chuna, Sapopa Canyon, Rio Mayo, 25º 52' N, 107º 05' W, 1926 m, 27-II-1935, Gentry H.S. 1370 (K, MEXU, MO);
- Rancho el Aguilar, 29º 33' N, 110º 25' W, 500 m, 21-IV-1991, Joyal, E. 1998 (MEXU).