1. Glycyrrhiza lepidota Pursh. Licorice. 



Perennial herb with tall (6-9 dm.) erect stems arising from stout sweet roots, 

 the herbage all glandular-viscid; leaves alternate, once-imparipinnately-compound; 

 stipules minute, slender; petioles short; leaflets 15 to 19, oblong-lanceolate, 

 mucronate-pointed, sprinkled with little scales when young and with correspond- 

 ing dots when old; flowers in spiciform axillary racemes; calyx somewhat 2-lipped, 

 the upper lip nearly entire (that is, the 2 upper lobes nearly completely coales- 

 cent), the 3 lower lobes not coalescent so high; corolla whitish, very much as in 

 Astragalus; stamens diadelphous, 9 filaments coalescent, the tenth (uppermost) 

 free, the anthers alternating large and small (shorter ones smaller); fruit dry 

 and indehiscent or scarcely dehiscent, laterally compressed, few-seeded, oblong, 

 beset with hooked prickles suggesting the projections of cockleburs. 



Infrequent in alluvial and sandy soils, often in seepage and wet soils, stream 

 beds or roadside and irrigation ditches, in Okla. (Waterfall), in Tex. in the 

 Trans-Pecos and higher parts of the Plains Country, e. locally to Wichita Co. 

 along the Red River and N.M. (widespread), Apr .-June; widespread in U. S, 

 except the s.e. portion. 



A good soil-binder but potentially a noxious weed. 



16. Alhagi Gagnebin 



A genus with perhaps 3 species of the deserts of central and western Asia, of 

 which 1 has been introduced in the deserts of North America. 



1. Alhagi camelonim Fisch. Camel-thorn. 



Much-branched thorny glabrous shrubs, spreading by rhizomes, to about 1 m. 

 high; leaves alternate, small, unifoliolate, with a distinct petiolule 1-3 mm. long; 

 blade linear or linear-oblanceolate to obovate, leathery, to about 3 cm. long and 7 

 mm. wide; flowers numerous in short racemes; calyx with a campanuloid tube 

 nearly truncate or with 5 apical teeth or lobes; corolla papilionaceous, purplish- 

 pink; fruit a slender brownish moniliform pod 2-3 cm. long and with 1 to several 

 suborbicular joints that do not separate from each other at maturity, indehis- 

 cent. 



Established along drainage ditches and streams, often in gypseous soils, in 

 Culberson and El Paso cos. in the Tex. Trans-Pecos and in Ariz. (Navajo, 

 Coconino and Maricopa cos.), June-July; introd. into Tex., Ariz., etc. from Asia. 



A potentially pernicious weed. According to Kearney and Peebles this plant 

 is of great value as a browse in the desert regions of Asia, but it is a dangerous 

 introduction since it is extremely difficult to eradicate from cultivated fields, 

 having deep and extensive rootstocks. In Persia and Afghanistan an exudate, 

 similar to the drug manna that is obtained from Fraxinus Ornus, is collected from 

 the camel-thorn. 



17. Aeschynomene L. Joint Vetch 



A genus of about 1(X) species of the warmer parts of the world. 



1. Aeschynomene indica L. Figs. 502 and 503. 



Perennial herb; stems erect, 5-25 dm. tall, much-branched, glabrous to hispidu- 

 lous; stipules peltate, appendiculate below the point of attachment; leaves alter- 

 nate, 5-10 cm. long; leaflets 19 to 63; flowers pinkish or salmon-color, papiliona- 

 ceous, 8-10 mm. long; stamens 10, monadelphous; fruit a loment, with 5 to 14 

 joints. 



Local in wet coastal areas, Kleberg Co. to Jefferson Co. in Tex., Aug.-Sept.; 

 N.C. to Tex., s. to Braz. and Arg. 



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