Phaseolus ritensis M.E. Jones (1908: 14)

Phaseolus ritensis M.E. Jones (1908: 14) View in CoL [clade B; sect. Coriacei Freytag ]. TYPE: ME Jones s.n. (LECTOTYPE: POM-28786; ISOLECTOTYPES: DS-145645, GH-64079 ,NY-312364,POM-28788).

In 1908 Marcus Eugene Jones made the description of a bean plant from the Santa Rita mountains of Arizona; although no specimen is indicated, the botanist wrote (p. 12) that “the types of all species described are in my herbarium”. The ME Jones Herbarium was purchased in 1923 by the Pomona College, and now kept at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, where the author saw the specimen (with barcode RSA 3602) in November 2010 (here considered as lectotype). P. ovatifolius reported in the list of “Vascular Plants of the Americas” ( Tropicos 2020) is a synonym of this species (as also reported by Delgado-Salinas 1985). Phaseolus ritensis is a tall plant of the Coriacei with upper stems twining, often confused with P. maculatus ( Fig. 11 View FIG ). It thrives on slopes in pine-oak forests from S Arizona down to Jalisco, mostly along the eastern slope of Sierra Madre Occidental, at 1200–2600 m. The presence in New Mexico and Texas is still to be documented, as the author has not seen specimens from these two states (neither reported by Wooton & Standley 1915, nor by Turner et al. 2003, respectively), in contrast with P.maculatus .

Specimens: U.S.A. Arizona: JC Blumer 3360 ( UC-153734 ). MEXICO. Chihuahua: R Corral-Díaz 2190 (NMC-2904). Durango: ME Maury 138 (IEB-79536). Jalisco: A Rodríguez-Contreras 1454 ( IBUG-94444 ) .