514 



FOUQUIERIACEAE 



FOUQUIERIACEAE. Candlewood Family 



Heavily armed shrubs, leafless in tlio dr()u<i;ht periods between the rains. Pri- 

 mary leaves of the season's shoots soon deciduous but developing their petioles into 

 stout spines, the ordinary leaves borne on short spurs in the axils of the spines. 

 Flowers showy, perfect, in terminal panicles. Sepals 5, unequal, imbricated. 

 Corolla tubular, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 10 to 17; filaments with a firm or red 

 portion at base, this portion puberulent on back and developed at apex into a tooth 

 or short ligule on the inside. Ovary superior; placentae parietal, lamellate, in- 

 truded in cavity and partly united at base so as 

 to make an incompletely 3-celled ovary; ovules 4 

 to 6 on each placenta; styles 3, united to the mid- 

 dle. Fruit a capsule. — Genus 1. 



Bibliog. — Niedenzu, F., Fouquierioideae in Engler & 

 Prantl, Nat. Pflzfam. 3«:298, fig. 136 (1893). Nash, Geo. 

 V.jEovision of the familv Fouquieriaceae (Bull. Torr. Club 

 30:449-459,-1903). Robinson, W. J., The spines of 

 Fouquieria (Bull. Torr. Club 31:45-50, figs. 1-13,-1904). 

 Cannon, W. A., Transpiration of Fouquieria splendens 

 (Bull. Torr. Club 32:397-414, figs. 1-7,-1905). Hum- 

 phrey, K. H., Thorn formation in Fouquieria splendens 

 (Bull. Torr. Club 58:263-264,-1931). Scott, Flora M., 

 Some features of the anatomy of Fouquieria splendens 

 (Am. Jour. Bot. 19:673-678, figs. 1-7,-1932). 



COACH-W^HIP 



1. FOUQUIERIA HBK 



The only genus. — Species 3, IMexico and south- 

 western United States. (P. E. Fouquier, profes- 

 sor of medicine at Paris.) 



1. F. splendens Engelm. Ocotillo. (Fig. 

 247.) Stems mostly simple, 8 to 25 feet high, in 

 clusters from a common root-crown; bark whit- 

 ish, deeply furrowed between the decurrent bases 

 of the slender but rigid spreading spines; leaf- 

 blades fleshy, obovate, rounded at apex, contracted 

 to a narrow base, sessile, 5 to 10 lines long, form- 

 ing axillarj' rosettes on old wood; panicles race- 

 mose, dense, 4 to 10 inches long; flowers scarlet, % to 1 inch long; sepals roundish, 

 2 to 3 lines broad; corolla-lobes recunang; stamens 15 to 17, exserted; capsule 8 

 lines long, 3-valved; seeds with a long fringe of hairs. 



Desert mesas, 5 to 1700 feet : Colorado Desert. East to Texas, south to Mexico. 

 Apr.-June. 



Field note. — On the rocky-gravelly mesa in the upper part of the Vallecito, eastern San 

 Diego Co., Fouquieria splendens makes a thin pygmy forest about 2^2 miles long by 2 miles wide, 

 a stand which exerts a sense of strange uniqueness on the mind of the traveler entering the area 

 over the rocky traverse that closes the lower end of Mason Valley. The clumps or vase-like clus- 

 ters, spaced 35 to 50 feet apart on the average, consist of half-a-dozen to as many as 50 or even 

 100 stems. After a rain, these stems, which are mostly simple, are clothed from top to bottom 

 mth small green rosettes of leaves. In this locality the heights of three individuals were meas- 

 ured as follows: 21 feet, 2 inches; 22 feet; and 25 feet, 2 inches. The latter individual had a 

 circumference of 16 inches at the ground. This species may flower two or three times in one year 

 during periods of favorable moisture. While the shrubs become leafless during drought periods, 

 they respond quickly to slight rainfall ; and even the limits of marked thunderstorms in the desert 

 can sometimes be traced by the prompt leafage of the Ocotillo. It is also called Holy Candle 

 and Our Lord's Candle on account of the panicles (4 to 10 inches long) which make tongues of a 

 flame-like color borne at the summit of the very spiny stems. 



Locs. — Calexico, Davy 8010; Mountain Sprs., e. San Diego Co., Parish 9068; Vallecito, 

 Jepson 8621; Sentenac Valley, e. San Diego Co., Jepson; Borrego Valley, Jepson; Coachella, 

 Greata; Cottonwood Spr., n. of Mecca, ace. Peirson; Black Point, Eiverside Mts., Jepson 5251. 



Fig. 247. Fouquieria splen- 

 dens Engelm, a, inflorescence, X 

 Ys ; 6> cross sect, of ovary, X 5 ; 

 c, fr., X 1. 



