Hechtia montana Brandegee

Hechtia montana Brand. Erythea 7: 9. 1899
Hechlia pedicdlala "S. Wats." I. M. Johnston, Proc. Calif. Acad. IV. 12: 995. 1924.
Plant imperfectly known, probably about 1 m. high; leaves numerous in a dense rosette, 15-45 cm. long; sheaths large, broadly ovate to suborbicular, brown, glabrous or obscurely punctulate; blades linear-triangular, pungent, 2-3 cm. wide, cinereous-scurfy below, appressedIcpidote and soon glabrous and shiny above, armed with slender uncinate brown teeth up to 5 mm. long and 10-25 mm. apart; scape terete, 1 era. in diameter, sparsely floccose-lepidote, soon glabrous; scape-bracts strict, the lower ones foliaceous, 10-15 cm. long, imbricate, the upper linear-lanceolate, pungent, remote; inflorescence laxly bipinnate, slenderly pyramidal, 3-5 dm. long, sparsely white-floccose, soon glabrous; primary bracts lance-ovate, acuminate, much shorter than the axillary branches, sparsely serrate or entire; racemes sessile or subsessile, ascending or spreading, laxly flowered especially in the pistillate plants, up to 16 cm. long; floral bracts linear-lanceolate, acuminate, equaling or exceeding the staminate pedicels, about half as long as the pistillate pedicels, flowers spreading; pedicels slender, the staminate 2-3 mm. long, the pistillate 4—8 mm. long; staminate sepals broadly ovate, acute, 2.5 mm. long, thin; pistillate sepals narrowly deltoid, acuminate, 3 mm. long, much thickened at base and bearing 3 prominent nerves; staminate petals broadly elliptic, obtuse, 4.5 mm. long, pale-yellow; pistillate petals deltoid, acuminate, 5 mm. long; stamens included; ovary slightly inferior; stigmas sessile; capsule ovoid, acute, 1 cm. long; seeds oblong or falcate with a narrow dorsal wing which is prolonged at apex into a narrow appendage nearly as long as the seed.
Type locality: Along the base of the mountains, San Jos6 del Cabo, [Baja California]. Distribution: Southern Baja California, Sonera, and Sinaloa.