Astragalus crassicarpus |
Astragalus spaldingii |
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Spalding's milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, caulescent, canescent-villous, hairs basifixed. | |
Stems | numerous, prostrate, decumbent, or ascending, 10–50 cm. |
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Leaves | 2.5–13 cm; leaflets (9)15–25(29), narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 4–18 × 1–4.5 mm; tips obtuse to acute; surfaces villous or villous-pilose; stipules 2.5–8 mm; free. |
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Inflorescences | racemes dense, closely crowded, elongating and spiciform with age; (6)12–30-flowered; peduncles 3–10 cm; bracts 1.5–4.5 mm; pedicels 0.2–0.8 mm; bracteoles 0. |
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Flowers | spreading at anthesis; calyces 5–8.3 mm, white villous or villous-tomentose; tubes (2.5)3.1–4.5 mm; teeth narrowly subulate, 2–4.2 mm; corollas 7–11.7 mm; whitish, often lavender-tinged, glabrous; ovules 4–10. |
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Fruits | bilocular, enclosed by persistent calyces, spreading or ascending, obliquely ovoid; straight; somewhat compressed; (3.5)4–6 × 2.5–3.5 mm, densely villous-tomentulose; valves thickly papery; stipes 0–0.3 mm. |
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2n | =24. |
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Astragalus crassicarpus |
Astragalus spaldingii |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Slopes and roadside banks, sagebrush and bunchgrass communities. Flowering Apr–Jul. 300–1300 m. BW, Col. ID, WA. Native. This species is readily distinguished by its spike-like racemes of small, crowded, pallid flowers and small, densely pubescent ovoid fruits enclosed for most of their length by the persistent calyces. |
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Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 674 Richard Halse |
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Sibling taxa | ||
Web links |
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