CALTROPS FAMILY 437 



Naturalized weed, native of the Old World, spreading widely over valley levels 

 and desert mesas, 10 to 2200 feet. Apr.-Aug. 



Migration note. — Tribulus terrestris, a serious agricultural pest, was probably introduced 

 into California by ballast or incoming shipments of live stock. It was first noticed at Santa 

 Monica in 1902 (Dav. & Mox., Fl. S. Cal. 215). After a few years there began a marked move- 

 ment of this intruder along railway lines in Southern California, whence it advanced, stUl along 

 the railway lines, into northern California as far as Shasta Co. Its presence was always first 

 obvious near railway stations, but it also spread quickly over cultivated and uncultivated lands. 

 Its occupation of the soil on the valley levels is so thoroughgoing that some thousands of acres of 

 farming areas in the Bakersfield region have been abandoned, according to W. W. Eobbins who 

 is studying control measures. The plant has become an especially difficult problem in alfalfa 

 fields. The presence of its burs in alfalfa or other forage lessens to a considerable degree the 

 market value of the hay. The rapid migratory power of the species is owing in the main to the 

 virtue of its barbed pods. By means of the barbed spines the pod is enabled to attach itself to 

 a great variety of objects and is thus distributed with fruits, vegetables and all sorts of miscel- 

 laneous shipments carried in sacking. Through the agency of cattle and sheep it has moved 

 promptly also along country roadways. Here it is a nuisance to the tire casings of automobiles 

 on account of the rigid spines with which the fruit is armed, whence Puncture Vine, the folk name 

 by which the plant is best known. It is also called Hell-bur and Bull-head. Cf. Mo. Bull. Cal. 

 Dept. Agr. 19:468-469, 606 (1930). 



Locs. — Riverside, Martha Rowland in 1918; Colton, San Bernardino Valley, Parish 6965 in 

 1908 ; San Fernando Valley ; Needles,' Jepson 5489 in 1913 ; Barnwell, e. Mohave Desert, W. J. 

 Conyior in 1913; Bakersfield, C. P. Fox in 1905; Friant, Fresno Co., Jepson 13,301 in 1928; 

 Fresno; Los Banos, M. S. Jussel in 1921; Tracy, K. Brandegee in 1907; Antioch in 1913; Ken- 

 wood, Sonoma Co., M. S. BaTcer 4869b in 1929; Willows, C. J. Ley in 1913; Castle Crag near 

 Dunsmuir, Jepson 6160 in 1914. 



Refs. — Tribulus terrestris L. Sp. PI. 387 (1753), type from Europe; Jepson, Man. 603 

 (1925). 



2. KALLSTROEMIA Scop. 



Herbs. Leaves even-pinnate, one of each of the opposite pairs alternately 

 smaller than the other. Leaflets a little oblique. Sepals 5 or 6, persistent. Petals 

 4 to 6, caducous. Stamens 10 or 12, those opposite the petals adnate to their bases, 

 those alternate with the petals subtended on the outside by a small gland. Ovary 

 8 to 12-celled, the cells without transverse partitions. Stigmas 5. Fruit 8 to 12- 

 angled, splitting into as many nutlets; nutlets mostly 1-seeded, tuberculate on the 

 back. — Species about 12, South and North America and Australia. (Greek kallos, 

 beautiful, and Stroemia, a genus of Capparidaceae.) 



1. K. californica Vail. Stems branching, diffuse, 4 to 12 inches long; herbage 

 hoary-pubescent; leaflets 10 to 14, oblong-elliptical, 3 to 6 or 12 lines long; pe- 

 duncles shorter than the leaves; sepals deciduous; petals yellow, 2 to 3 lines long, 

 little longer than the sepals; fruit 11/2 to 2 lines broad, the 8 or 10 carpels with 4 

 or 5 sharp tubercles on the back, beak of fruit shorter than the body. 



Sandy plains, 10 to 100 f eet : Imperial Valley. South into Lower California. 



Distribution note. — Kallstroemia californica is a rarity in California. "We have only one 

 record: Heber, Airams 4002. 



Refs.— Kallstroemia californica Vail, Bull. Torr. Club 22:230 (1895). Tribulus calif or- 

 nicus Wats. Proc. Am. Acad, 11:125 (1876), type loc. L. Cal., e. side, Palmer. 



Kallstroemia grandiflora Torr. ; Gray, PI. Wright. 1 :28 (1852), type loc. Gila River, Ariz., 

 Emory. Stems erect, widely branching and ascending, 8 to 12 inches high; herbage wholly gla- 

 brous or the upper parts (including the calyx) hispid; leaflets 8 to 18, oblong, % to % inch long; 

 peduncles exceeding the leaves; sepals narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 6 to 7 lines long; petals 

 deep yellow, 7 to 10 lines long, withering-persistent; carpels 10, pubescent, tuberculate on the 

 back ; beak of fruit longer than body. — Arizona to Texas and Mexico. Attributed to California 

 in North American Flora (25:114), but there is no spm. in New York Botanical Garden Her- 

 barium. Observed near Bard, e. Imperial Co., Cal., ace. J. J. Thornber in litt. We do not know 

 of the existence of any California specimens. 



3. FAGONIA Tourn. 



Suffrutescent plants, ours with 3-f oliolate leaves. Flowers rose-purple. Petals 

 clawed, early deciduous. Ovary 5-celled, a pair of collateral ovules in each cell. 

 Stigma 1. Fruit deeply 5-lobed, smooth, breaking up into 5 distinct carpels which 



