FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERXS OF ARIZONA 835 



112. MARTYNIACEAE. I mcor>pla.\t family 

 1. MARTYNIA. 48 Uxicorxplaxt 



Coarse viscid-pubescent annual herbs; leaves petioled, the lower 

 ones mostly opposite, the blades large, entire to shallowly lobed; 

 flowers few, large and showy, in terminal racemes; calyx somewhat 

 inflated, subtended by 1 or 2 bractlets; corolla somewhat bilabiate; 

 stamens 4, all perfect or 2 of them sterile; anthers gland-tipped, the 

 cells divaricate; pods large, somewhat fleshy, ending in a long, in- 

 curved, hooked, dehiscent beak. 



These plants are usually known in Arizona as devilsclaw. The 

 young pods are sometimes eaten as a vegetable. The black designs in 

 the baskets made by the Pima and other Arizona Indians are woven 

 with the split mature pods of M. parviflora. The plants are regarded 

 as somewhat of a pest on sheep ranges because the hooked beaks of 

 the pods become entangled in the fleece. 



Key to the species 



1. Corolla reddish purple to nearly white, often dotted or blotched with red 

 purple and streaked with yellow, the limb about 2.5 cm. wide, the tube only 

 slightly ventricose; leaf blades usually longer than wide, nearly entire to 



shallowly si nuate-lobed ' 1. M. parviflora. 



1. Corolla yellow or copper-colored, often dotted or splotched with red or brown, 

 the limb 3 to 4 cm. wide; leaf blades usually wider than long (2). 

 2. Leaf blades distinctly lobed; bracts elliptic to broadly oblong; calyx with 

 lobes nearly as long as the tube; corolla tube strongly ventricose. 



2. M. ARENARIA. 



2. Leaf blades nearly entire to shallowly, sinuately lobed; bracts ovate to 

 suborbicular; calyx with lobes much shorter than the tube; corolla 

 tube scarcely ventricose 3. M. altheaefolia. 



1. Martynia parviflora Wooton, Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 25: 453. 1898. 



Proboscidea parviflora TVoot. and Standi., Contrib. U. S. Natl. 

 Herbarium 19: 602. 1915. 



Gila and Yavapai Counties to Cochise and Pima Counties, 1,200 

 to 5,000 feet, plains, mesas, and roadsides, April to October. Western 

 Texas to southern Nevada, Arizona, and northern Mexico. 



A collection near Sacaton, Pinal County (Peebles et al. 75) differs 

 from the characterization in the key in having leaf blades considerably 

 wider than long and the corolla tube strongly ventricose. These are 

 characters of M. fragrans Lindl. but the corolla is too small for that 

 species as described (see footnote 49, Van Eseltine, p. 21). The 

 specimen cited has the horns of the fruit exceptionally long, both 

 absolutely and relatively, being nearly 30 cm. long and nearly 3 times 

 as long as the body of the fruit. 



2. Martynia arenaria Enselm. in Wisliz., Mem. North. Mex. 100. 



1848. 



Proboscidea arenaria Decne., Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 5, 3: 326. 

 1865. 



Phial, Cochise, and Pima Counties (probably elsewhere), plains 

 and mesas, July to September. Western Texas to southern Arizona 



* s Reference: Van Eseltine, G. P. a preliminary study of the unicorn plants. X. Y. Agr. Expt- 

 Bta. Tech. Bui. 149. 1929. 



