Flora of North America species comparison

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Acmispon dendroideus

island broom
Habit Shrubs or subshrubs, erect or procumbent, low to robust, green or gray, 5–20 dm, not fleshy, sparsely to densely strigose; from woody caudices.
Stems

1–10+, erect or decumbent, branched, woody, leafy.
Leaves

irregularly pinnate;

stipules glandlike; short-petiolate to petiolate;

rachis 3–10 mm, not flattened;

leaflets 3–5, blades narrowly obovate to elliptic or oblong, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces sparsely to densely strigose.
Inflorescences

(3–)7–12-flowered.
Peduncles

ascending, 2–10 mm, shorter than leaves;

bract absent or unifoliolate, subtending umbel.
Flowers

8–12 mm;

calyx 4–6 mm, tube sparsely strigose to glabrate, lobes short-subulate to deltate;

corolla yellow, claws ± longer than calyx tube, banner implicate-ascending to 90°, wings ± equaling keel;

style abruptly incurved 90°, glabrous.
Legumes

persistent, exserted, divergent to declined, brown, straight or curved, turgid, slightly constricted, not septate, linear-oblong, 10–50 × 1–2 mm, leathery, apex tapering, long-beaked, indehiscent, ± veined, margins thickened, smooth, glabrate or sparsely strigose.
Seeds

1–4(–6), brown (paler veined), not mottled, cylindric, smooth.

Acmispon dendroideus
Distribution
California
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

In a phylogeographic study of Acmispon dendroideus, L. E. Wallace et al. (2017) showed that var. traskiae is sister to vars. dendroideus and veatchii. Acmispon dendroideus has been reported from Baja California, Mexico, but the material is inadequate for confident determination.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Subshrubs (shrubs); stems decumbent; leaflets 3, blades densely strigose, almost silky, usually gray.
var. veatchii
1. Shrubs; stems erect; leaflets 3–5, blades sparsely strigose, greenish.
→ 2
2. Umbel bract absent; ovules 1–3; legumes 10–15 mm.
var. dendroideus
2. Umbel bract unifoliolate; ovules 4–6; legumes (20–)30–50 mm.
var. traskiae
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Acmispon
Sibling taxa
A. americanus, A. argophyllus, A. argyraeus, A. brachycarpus, A. cytisoides, A. decumbens, A. denticulatus, A. glaber, A. grandiflorus, A. haydonii, A. intricatus, A. junceus, A. maritimus, A. mearnsii, A. micranthus, A. neomexicanus, A. parviflorus, A. plebeius, A. procumbens, A. prostratus, A. rigidus, A. rubriflorus, A. strigosus, A. tomentosus, A. utahensis, A. wrangelianus, A. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
A. dendroideus var. dendroideus, A. dendroideus var. traskiae, A. dendroideus var. veatchii
Synonyms Syrmatium dendroideum, Hosackia dendroidea, Lotus dendroideus, L. scoparius var. dendroideus
Name authority (Greene) Brouillet: J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2: 389. (2008)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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