Astragalus iodanthus |
Astragalus tetrapterus |
|
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Humboldt River milkvetch |
four-wing milkvetch |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, caulescent, strigillose to villosulous, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, strigillose, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | several, prostrate to decumbent, 3–40 cm. |
several, ascending to erect, becoming decumbent in fruit, 10–35(45) cm. |
Leaves | 2–8 cm; leaflets 7–21, obovate to oblong or oblanceolate to elliptic, 3–18 × 2–12 mm; tips truncate to retuse, obtuse or mucronate; surfaces sparsely strigose to glabrous; stipules 2–6 mm; free. |
1.5–9 cm; leaflets 9–23, linear, narrowly oblong or elliptic, 1–33 × 0.3–3.2 mm; tips obtuse to acute; surfaces glabrous to strigose; terminal leaflets confluent with rachis in the uppermost leaves; stipules 2–5.5 mm; free. |
Inflorescences | racemes 7–21-flowered; peduncles 1–4.5 cm; bracts 1–3 mm; pedicels 0.3–2 mm; bracteoles 0–2. |
racemes 6–15-flowered; peduncles 1–6.5 cm; bracts 1.5–3.5 mm; pedicels 1.4–4.3 mm; bracteoles 0–2. |
Flowers | widely ascending or spreading at anthesis; calyces 3.3–8 mm, strigillose or rarely villosulous with black or mixture of black and white hairs; tubes 2.6–5 mm; teeth subulate or triangular, 1–3 mm; corollas 9–15.5 mm, bright purple to lilac or whitish, sometimes lilac-tinged or -tipped; ovules 14–30. |
ascending at anthesis; calyces (4)5.5–8.7 mm, strigose with black or mixture of black and white hairs; tubes 3.5–7 mm; teeth subulate or triangular, 0.5–2.8 mm; corollas 15–19 mm, white to yellowish and pink or bright pink-purple-tinged; keel faintly to darkly purple-tipped; ovules 28–42. |
Fruits | unilocular to semibilocular, deflexed, humistrately spreading, lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or lance-elliptic, curved through a quarter- to half-circle or more, dorsiventrally or trigonously compressed, ventrally sulcate, 15–40 × 2.5–8.5 mm, often mottled, strigillose or glabrous; valves stiffly papery or subcoriaceous; stipes 0. |
unilocular, declined or pendulous, obliquely oblong or clavate-oblong, curved or coiled, strongly carinate, obcompressed early, becoming sharply tetragonal and 4-winged; wings up to 2.5 mm wide at maturity; (16)20–40 × (4)6–10 mm, glabrous to strigose; valves stiffly papery to subcoriaceous; stipes 0. |
2n | =22. |
|
Astragalus iodanthus |
Astragalus tetrapterus |
|
Distribution | ||
Discussion | 2 varieties. |
Hillsides of ash-clay-tuff, sandy soils, sagebrush. Flowering May–Jun. 900–1700 m. BR, ECas, Owy. ID, NV; southeast to AZ. Native. The four-winged fruits of this species are unique among Oregon milkvetches. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 666 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 675 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus cinerascens, Astragalus tetrapterus var. cinerascens, Astragalus tetrapterus var. tetrapterus | |
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