Dalea albiflora

Martin and Hutchins 1980

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Subshrub General: Perennial herb with erect to ascending stems, to 60 cm tall, pilose to densely villous, stems often reddish in color. Leaves: Pinnately compound leaflets 19-31, oblong to oblong-elliptic or narrowly obovate, 5-7 mm long, villous on both surfaces, soft wavy hairs and gland-dotted below. Flowers: Dense, erect, cylindrical spikes 2-4 cm long with peduncles usually longer than the spikes, with attenuate floral bracts, surpassing the calyx; calyx lobes deltoid-subulate, shorter than or about equal to tube; corolla white, 5 petals, spreading about 3 mm long with exserted stamens. Fruits: Pods minutely pubescent, glandular above. Ecology: Found on open slopes often in canyons from 3,500-7,000 ft (1067-2134 m); flowers May-October. Distribution: AZ, sw NM; south to n MEX. Notes: Distinguished by being a densely, silvery-hairy erect perennial with few-many stems from a single base to 60 cm tall; leaves with many silvery-pubescent leaflets; the terminal, dense spike of small, but showy white flowers. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Dalea is named for Samuel Dale (1659-1739) an English physician and botanist, while albiflora means white flowered. Synonyms: Dalea ordiae, Petalostemon pilosulus Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015