Funastrum torreyi
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 13: 287. 1914.
Stems hirsute (pilose). Leaves persistent, stipular colleter 1 on each side of petiole; petiole 1–2.5 cm, hirsute throughout; blade deltate, lanceolate, or ovate, 2–5.5 × 1.5–2.5 cm, chartaceous, base sagittate or cordate, margins plane, apex acute or attenuate, mucronate, venation pinnipalmate, main veins often conspicuously pale, surfaces hirsute, margins ciliate, laminar colleters 4–10. Inflorescences solitary at nodes, 8–15-flowered; peduncle 2–7 cm, hirsute; bracts caducous, 1, at base of each pedicel. Pedicels 10–17 mm, hirsute. Flowers: calyx lobes narrowly lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 4–6 mm, apex acute to acuminate, erect, hirsute, ciliate, colleter 1, in sinuses; corolla cream to pink or purplish with red or purplish blotches or stripes at bases and near tips of lobes, rotate-campanulate, tube 2–2.5 mm, lobes ascending, lanceolate to ovate, 6–9 mm, apex acute to obtuse, apiculate, hirsutulous abaxially, minutely hirtellous adaxially, margins conspicuously ciliate with flattened trichomes; corona ring cream, inflated corona segments proximally green, distally glossy white, ovoid, 2–3 mm; style apex shallowly convex. Follicles usually solitary, lance-ovoid, 8–9 × 1–1.5 cm, apex long-attenuate, puberulent. Seeds 20–50, light brown, thickly winged, biconvex, lanceolate, 6–7 × 3–4 mm, both faces papillate; coma white, 3 cm.
Phenology: Flowering May–Oct; fruiting Sep–Oct.
Habitat: Canyons, arroyos, dry slopes, ridges, plains, igneous substrates, juniper and oak woods, thorn scrub, desert scrub.
Elevation: 1200–2100 m.
Distribution
Tex., Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas).
Discussion
Funastrum torreyi barely enters the flora area in the Big Bend region of Texas. It is apparently not common and re-evaluation of its conservation status is warranted. It has the largest and showiest flowers of the Funastrum species in the flora region.
Selected References
None.