PLANT : Erect, suffrutescent perennial, 1.5-4.0 m tall.

STEMS : green, brittle, much-branched from the base, dotted with dark reddish glands.

LEAVES : 1-4 cm long, long-petiolate; petioles 5-8 mm; leaflets obovate 4-6 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, gland-dotted abaxially, sparsely canescent on both sides.

INFLORESCENCE : a loose raceme, 2-10 cm long.

FLOWERS : 5-8 mm long; calyx lobes triangular, ca. 0.8 mm long, acute, shorter than the tube, with canescent veins, without prominent ribs; petals bright blue-purple and white.

FRUIT : an obliquely obovoid and compressed pod, 1.8-2.4 mm long with two rows of glands on each side.

NOTES : Common on low deserts on granitic or volcanic soils: Cochise, Gila, La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai, Yuma cos. (Fig. 1C); 0-1150 m (0-3700 ft); Mar-Jun (all year); s CA; Baja C., Son. in Mex.

REFERENCES : Rhodes, Suzanne, June Beasley and Tina Ayers. 2011. Fabaceae. CANOTIA 7: 1-13.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Ephemeral to short lived perennial 20-80 cm tall with ashy-strigose, glandular glandular branches, the stipules 1-2 mm long.

Leaves: Pinnate 3.5-6 cm long with 15-35 leaflets, these suborbicular to obovate, emarginate and strigose and glandular on both sides, 2-6 mm long.

Flowers: On racemes 2-10 cm long with many flowers, the calyx strigose with a top-shaped tube, 1.5-2 mm long, the calyx lobes deltoid with upper four lobes half as long as the tube, the corolla violet to purple, the banner reniform, 1.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, with a 1 mm long claw, the blades of wing petals 3 mm long, paler to nearly white along the lower margin.

Fruits: Pods puberulent between rows of glands, 2-2.5 mm long.

Ecology: Found on rocky slopes and in washes below 4,000 ft (1219 m), flowers March-June.

Distribution: Across the Sonoran and Mojave deserts south into southern Sonoran and Baja California.

Notes: Distinguished by the racemose flowers, with stout stems, but an ephemeral species at that. Flowers are white and purple, stems are somewhat suffretescent, and the herbage and calyces are strigose-canescent. Look also at the seed pods which are furry, with rows of long hairs alternating with rows of glands.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Marina refers to marine, or of the sea, while parryi is named for Dr. Charles Christopher Parry (1823-1890), an English-born American botanist and collector.

Synonyms: Dalea angulata, Dalea divaricata var. cinerea, Dalea parryi, Parosela divaricata var. cinerea, Dalea parryi

Editor: SBuckley 2011