Hoita
N. Amer. Fl. 24: 7. 1919.
Herbs, perennial, unarmed; stoloniferous, with woody caudex or root. Stems erect or prostrate, often fistulose, usually pubescent and glandular-punctate; cataphylls often present on proximalmost nodes. Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate; stipules present; petiolate; leaflets 3, blade margins entire, surfaces pubescent, glandular. Inflorescences 3–75+-flowered, axillary, pseudoracemes; bracts soon or tardily deciduous. Flowers papilionaceous; calyx tubular-campanulate, lobes 5, not enlarging in fruit, becoming papery, lobes longer than tube; corolla purple, or greenish tinged violet or purple, banner biauriculate, wings auriculate, keel always shorter than other petals, connate on apical margins, glabrous; stamens 10, monadelphous early, vexillary stamen becoming distinct; anthers in 2 series, proximal dorsifixed, distal basifixed; ovule 1. Fruits legumes, included in calyx, longer than tube, stipitate, compressed, ovate to obovate indehiscent, eglandular, pubescent, with secondary, internal wall of sclereids. Seeds 1, reniform to ellipsoid. x = 11.
Distribution
California, nw Mexico.
Discussion
Species 3 (3 in the flora).
Species of Hoita are known from streamsides to moist banks and humid wooded slopes of coastal mountains and foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
J. W. Grimes (1990) recognized only three species in Hoita, reducing four of the 11 species recognized by Rydberg to synonymy under H. macrostachya, transferring one to Otholobium C. H. Stirton, and three to Rupertia. Hoita in the sense of Grimes is distinguished from other genera of Psoraleeae by the presence of the extra, internal wall in the fruit, and it is the only genus of the tribe in which the calyx does not enlarge or change shape through flowering and fruiting. Separation of Hoita from other Psoraleeae is further validated by a molecular phylogenetic study of the tribe (A. N. Egan and K. A. Crandall 2008).
Selected References
None.
Lower Taxa
Key
| 1 | Stems prostrate. | Hoita orbicularis |
| 1 | Stems erect. | > 2 |
| 2 | Stipules falcately lanceolate to caudate-elliptic, 7–16 mm, erect to reflexed. | Hoita strobilina |
| 2 | Stipules triangular to linear-triangular, 1.5–5 mm, erect. | Hoita macrostachya |