FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 673 



1. Forestiera phillyreoides (Benth.) Torr., U. S. and Mex. Bound. 



Bot. 167. 1859. 



Piptolepis phiUyreoidi s Benth., PL Hartw. 29. 1840. 

 Forestiera shrevei Standi., Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. Ser. 17: 

 205. 1937. 



Southern Maricopa, Pima, and Yuma Counties, 2,500 to 4,000 feet, 

 dry rocky slopes, often forming thickets, December to March, type 

 ofF. shrevei from the Ajo Mountains (Shreve 6201). Southern Arizona 

 and Mexico. 



Reaches a height of at least 2.5 m. (8 feet). What seems to be a 

 form of this species, collected by L. N. Goodding on the summit of 

 the Ajo Mountains, Pima County, has drupes 7.5 to 9.5 mm. long, 

 whereas they do not usually exceed 8 mm. in length in this species. 



2. Forestiera neomexicana A. Gray, Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. Proc. 



12: 63. 1876. 



Carrizo Mountains (Apache County) to Hualpai Mountain 

 (Mohave County), south to southern Apache, Gila, and Yavapai 

 Counties, 4,000 to 7,000 feet, April and May. Colorado and Utah to 

 western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. 



Commonly 1.8 to 2.5 m. (6 to 8 feet) high, varying greatly in leaf 

 shape. The var. arizonica Gray (F. arizonica Rydb.), which has the 

 twigs and sometimes the leaves copiously and often persistently soft- 

 pilose (these glabrous or obscurely puberulent in the typical form), 

 occurs throughout most of the range of the species in Arizona. The 

 type of var. arizonica was collected near Prescott by E. Palmer. 

 This variety seems to connect F. neomexicana A. Gray and F. 

 pubescens Nutt. 



3. MEXODORA 8 



Perennial herbs or undershrubs; leaves simple, entire, mostly alter- 

 nate; flowers showy, the corolla large, gamopetalous, rotate-campan- 

 ulate, yellow; capsules didymous, thin-walled, circumscissile; seeds 

 commonly 4 in each cell. 



The plants are reported to be highly palatable to livestock, in some 

 localities constituting a significant proportion of the total forage. 



Key to the species 



1. Calyx lobes normally 5 or 6, additional ones, if present, smaller: herbage and 

 calyx glabrous or nearly so; leaves of the inflorescence mostly reduced to 

 small subulate bracts 1. M. scoparia. 



1. Calyx lobes 7 or more; herbage and calyx usually scabrous-puberulent ; leaves 

 of the inflorescence small but commonly foliaceous 2. M. scabra. 



1. Menodora scoparia Engelm. in A. Gray, Bot. Calif. 1: 471. 1876, 

 Mohave, Yavapai, Gila, Pinal, Pima, and Yuma Counties, 3,500 

 to 5,000 feet, dry slopes and mesas, April to July. Arizona, south- 

 eastern California, and northern Mexico. 



What appears to be an exceptional form of this species, collected in 

 the Ajo Mountains, Pima County (Goodding 4392), is a low, dense 

 shrub, woodier than is usual in M. scoparia. 



5 Reference: STEYESMARK, J. A. A. REVISION OF THE GENUS MENODORA, Mo. Bot. (iani. \nn. 

 160. 1932. 



