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Papilionaceae
Dalea tentaculoides is a shrub with numerous stems. The compound leaves have 9-17 leaflets, and the small, pea-like flowers are rose-purple in color. The plant flowers in April, through June, and sometimes in September-October. The sepals, floral bracts, and branches bear long tentacle-like glands, a character for which the plant was named. It is very similar in appearance to at least three other Daleas growing in the same canyon. Plants are easily confused with D. versicolor and D. greggii. D. versicolor has blister bumps on the calyx, rather than tentacle-like glands. D. pulchra differs from D. tentaculoides in that it has gray-green hairy leaflets. The above-mentioned three species all have fewer leaflets than D. tentaculoides, which has 9-17 leaflets. Kearney et al (1960) lists 36 species of Dalea for Arizona, but there are unclear species delineations in the treatment.
Dalea tentaculoides grows on canyon bottoms in several locations in Santa Cruz and Pima Counties in Arizona. It is found at elevations ranging from 3600-4400 ft., associated with Oak-juniper woodland. Two populations are found on the Tohono O'odam Reservation. Of several sites that were listed on the Coronado National Forest, only one population has been relocated. Because it grows along flood plains along streams, plants are subject to being 'scoured out' by seasonal flooding.
Listed as a Category 1 plant by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, major threats include seasonal flooding, limited range, habitat degredation due to grazing by livestock, consumption by livestock, and trampling by people and livestock.
Sixty seeds of Dalea tentaculoides are currently held in the seed vault at Desert Botanical Garden. Additional seeds need to be collected before baseline germination tests can be conducted. The resulting plants need to be grown to maturity, producing flowering material that can be used to make herbarium specimens for further taxonomic evaluation of the validity of the species. Additionally, seed and herbarium specimen collections of all the Daleas growing with D. tentaculoides should be made for the same reason. Desert Botanical Garden will retain plants resulting from germination tests for production of seed in cultivation.
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