Diastatea tenera (A. Gray) McVaugh

Diastatea tenera (A. Gray) McVaugh, Bull. Torrey Club 67: 143. 1940.
Palmerella Unera A. Gray, Free. Am. Acad. 22: 433. 1887.
Lobelia Palmeri Greene. Pittonia 1: 297. 1889. (Based on Palmerella Unera A. Gray.)
Laureniia pinelorum Brand. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 4: 92. 1910. (Purpus 3665, U. of Calif.!)
Stem simple or with few subordinate side branches from the lower part, slender, usually not exceeding 1 mm. in diameter at base, purplish at least below, few-30 (64) cm. high, glabrous or minutely scabrous-pubenilent, scabrous below on the angles; leaves usually 6-8, thin, glabrous, somewhat appressed, the middle and upper ones linear or narrowly elliptic, acute at both ends, sessile, 0.1-0.25 cm. wide by 0.8-3.5 cm. long, the margins finely and shallowly serrulate with about 4 teeth per cm., the lower leaves smaller and relatively broader, obtuse or acute, mostly 0.2-0.4 cm. wide by 0.3-0.8 cm. long, sessile, or less often subpetiolate; inflorescence usually strongly secund, few-15 (32) cm. long, loosely 1-10(20-) flowered; pedicels usually arcuate (sometimes abruptly upcurved near tip) so that the mature capsule is erect or nearly so, often somewhat thickened beneath the hypanthium and merging imperceptibly with it, 6-20 (48) mm. long, smooth and glabrous; flower-bracts (except occasionally the lowest) linear, resembling reduced leaves, 1-2 mm. wide by 5-15 (20) mm. long; flower 10-16 mm. long, including hypanthium; corolla purplish-blue (piUT)le or deep lilac according to Mexia), with white or yellowish eye, the lower lip bituberculate at base, the tube narrowly cylindrical, not expanded above (the lobes flaring abruptly), slightly gibbous at base on lower side (in line with the two shorter anthers), 5-7.5 (8) mm. long, the two upper lobes linearspatulate, 1.0-1.5 mm. wide by 3.5-5 mm. long, the lobes of the lower lip obovate, rounded or truncate at tip, mucronate, 1.5-2.5 (4) mm. wide by 4-7 mm. long; filaments (5) 6-7.5 (9) mm. long; anther-tube (0.8) 1.0-1.3 (1.5) mm. long, the three larger anthers minutely puberulent or glabrous; hypanthium usually oblique, glabrous, becoming conic or turbinate in fruit, as long as or longer than broad, 1.0-1.5 (3) mm. high; capsule 1.5-2.5 (3.5) mm. in diameter by 5-7 (8) mm. long; calyx-lobes linear to elliptic or lanceolate, acute at tip, glabrous, with 1 or 2 minute teeth on each edge or less often entire, (1.0) 1.5-3 (3.5) mm. long; seeds about 0.5 mm. in length.
TvPB UJCAurv: Rio Blanco, Jalisco. Ed. Palmer 552. Sept. 17-23, 1886 (Gray!). DISTKISUTION : Jalisco to I'ucbia and Guerrero, at elevations of I40O-2600 m.