744 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



oculatum, with narrower leaves and smaller flowers. It is to be sought 

 in southeastern Arizona. These plants are sometimes known as 

 "Chinese-pusley" and "quailplant." It is stated that the dried root, 

 finely powdered, was applied to sores and wounds by the Pima Indians. 



3. HARPAGONELLA 

 Slender spreading annual; stems fragile, at maturity disarticulating 

 at the nodes; corolla white, inconspicuous; pedicels deflexed at matu- 

 rity; sepals united, the tips becoming appressed to the stem below the 

 base of the pedicel. 



1. Harpagonella palmeri A. Gray, Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. Proc. 

 11: 88. 1876. 



Western Gila County to central Maricopa County, and southward 

 through eastern Pima County to northern Sonora, 3,500 feet or lower, 

 gravelly slopes and benches in the Larrea belt, frequently under 

 mesquite. 



Only the var. arizonica Johnston, type from Camp Lowell, Pima 

 County (Parish 162), occurs in Arizona. The typical form of the 

 species, a mere slender plant, smaller throughout, is confined to coastal 

 southern California and Baja California. 



4. PECTOCARYA21 



Slender annual herbs with inconspicuous white flowers; pedicels 

 recurving at maturity; nutlets in divergent pairs. 



The species frequently grow together and may be very similar in 

 general appearance. Collections made without care may contain 

 mixtures of 2 or even 3 species. The surprising rarity of hybrids 

 among these associated, closely related species suggests that self- 

 pollination or apogamy may occur. Specialized cleistogamic flowers, 

 producing distinctive fruit, are frequently developed about the base 

 of the plant, abundantly so in P. heterocarpa. Detailed observation 

 on the behavior of the species is much needed. These little plants 

 are very abundant in spring in southwestern Arizona, growing mostly 

 in dry sandy or gravelly soil in the Larrea belt. It is stated that they 

 are eaten by sheep before the fruits mature. 



Key to the species 



1. Plant erect; body of the nutlet distinctly obovate, entire-margined or merely 



erose or denticulate 1. P. setosa. 



1. Plant prostrate or spreading; body of the nutlet linear or oblong (2). 



2. Nutlets conspicuously heteromorphous, 2 of them more or less ascending 

 and having distinct upturned sparsely toothed or entire margins, the 

 other 2 somewhat recurved and inconspicuously margined; calyx strongly 

 asymmetric; fruit about the base of the plant apparently from cleisto- 

 gamic flowers, its nutlets reflexed and not margined. 



2. P. HETEROCARPA. 



2. Nutlets homomorphic or practically so, all of the nutlets with pectinately 



lacerate or dentate margins, all spreading or all recurved; calyx nearly 



regular; fruit about the base of the plant apparently from normal flowers, 



not much modified (3). 



3. Nutlets with a very conspicuous, broad, toothed, cartilaginous margin, the 



triangular or cuneate teeth evidently united at base, the body of the 



nutlet straight or only moderately recurved 3. P. platycarpa. 



3. Nutlets with a very inconspicuous margin, dissected into distinct pectin- 

 ately arranged, subulate teeth, the body of the nutlet becoming very 

 strongly and conspicuously recurved 4. P. recurvata. 



21 Reference: Johnston, I. M. studies in the boraginaceae. II. pectocarya. Gray Herbarium 

 Contrib. 70: 34-39. 1924. 



