Leaves 2–10 cm; stipules subulate, 4–10 × 1 mm, spinescent; petiole 0.5–1 cm, strigose; rachis canaliculate; petiolules 1 mm, sericeous or glabrescent; leaflet blades narrowly obovate to elliptic, (5–)7–21 × 2.5–7(–9) mm, base attenuate to rounded, apex rounded. Inflorescences with fewer than 30 nodes, internodes mostly 0.5–6 mm, axis tomentose to woolly, stipitate glands absent or sparse; bracts persistent to caducous, 1 × 1 mm, blunt. Pedicels 3–6 mm. Flowers: calyx tube (1.5–)2–4 mm, sericeous to tomentose, lobes equal, broadly triangular, 7–11 mm; corolla 10–14 mm, glabrous or sericeous; filaments subequal; anthers small, dehiscing longitudinally; ovary with stipitate glands, densely sericeous. Legumes light to dark grayish or brownish, 2–5(–6) × 1.1–1.3 cm, base blunt, apex acute, often terminating in persistent style base, usually sparsely covered with stipitate glands. 2n = 18.
Phenology: Flowering early summer.
Habitat: Open, dry, shrubby sites.
Elevation: 0–1300 m.
Distribution
Ariz., Calif., Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora).
Discussion
Olneya tesota is economically important to the Seri Indians of the Sonoran Desert (R. S. Felger and M. B. Moser 1985). The many uses include nutritional (seeds and unripe pods) and medical ones, and production of firewood, tools, weapons, musical instruments, and artistic sculptures from the wood. Tinctures have been made from the green wood and used by the Seris in vision quests, which they believed gave them power.
Selected References
None.