Hall's California Tea

Hoita hallii Rydberg, sp. nov A perennial; stem less than 1 m. high, angled, sparingly short-pubescent, somewhat branched; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, about 1 cm. long; petioles 3-5 cm. long, glabrous or sparingly short-pubescent; leaflets rhombic-lanceolate, acuminate, 6-10 cm. long, 3-5 cm. wide glabrous, except the finely pubescent margins, or sparingly pubescent beneath conspicuously glandular-dotted; peduncles 5-10 cm. long; racemes short, 3-5 cm. long; bracts broadly ovate, conspicuously glandular-dotted and sparingly short-pubescent, 8-10 mm. long; calyx more or less villous; tube 5 mm. long; lobes lanceolate, the upper four 4-5 mm. long, the lowest 6-7 mm. long, acuminate; corolla about 1 cm. long, yellowish except the dark-purple tip of the keelbanner broadly obovate, with a short claw; blades of the wings obliquely oblong-obovate, with a large rounded basal lobe, those of the keel-petals broadly obovate, without a basal lobe; pod ovoid, darkly short-hairy.
,u Type collected on Humboldt Road, Butte County, California, July 31, 1914, H M Hall 98>5 (herb. Univ. Calif, no. 177574).

Perennial, Herbs, Stems woody below, or from woody crown or caudex, Taproot present, Nodules present, Stems erect or ascending, Stems less than 1 m tall, Plants gland-dotted or with gland-tipped hairs, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs glabrous or sparsely glabrate, Leaves alternate, Leave s petiolate, Stipules conspicuous, Stipules green, triangulate to lanceolate or foliaceous, Stipules persistent, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, Leaves odd pinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets 1, Leaflets 3, Leaves glandular punctate or gland-dotted, Leaves glabrous or nearly so, Leaves reduced to phyllodia, Inflorescences racemes, Inflorescence axillary, Bracts very small, absent or caducous, Flowers zygomorphic, Calyx 5-lobed, Calyx gibbous, inflated, or spurred, Calyx glabrous, Petals separate, Corolla papilionaceous, Petals ochroleucous, cream colored, Petals orange or yellow, Banner petal ovoid or obovate, Wing petals narrow, oblanceolate to oblong, Wing tips obtuse or rounded, Keel tips obtuse or rounded, not beaked, Stamens 9-10, Stamens monadelphous, united below, Filaments glabrous, Style terete, Fruit a legume, Fruit unilocular, Fruit indehiscent, Fruit oblong or ellipsoidal, Fruit enclosed in calyx, Fru it beaked, Fruit glabrous or glabrate, Fruit gland-dotted or with gland-tipped hairs, Fruit 1-seeded, Seeds reniform, Seed surface smooth, Seeds olive, brown, or black.

Rupertia hallii is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Hall's California tea, or Hall's rupertia. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from a small section of the northern Sierra Nevada foothills on the border between Butte and Tehama Counties. It is a perennial herb approaching a meter in height with slender, leafy branches. The leaves are each made up of three lance-shaped or oval, pointed leaflets measuring up to 9 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a clustered raceme of several whitish or yellowish pealike flowers. Each flower has a tubular calyx of sepals and a corolla spreading to about a centimeter in width. The fruit is a hairy, gland-speckled legume around a centimeter long.