Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus applegatei |
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Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
Applegate's milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, thinly strigillose, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
1–few, prostrate, 30–40 cm. |
Leaves | 1–12(17) cm; leaflets (3)5–17(21), elliptic to oblanceolate, 2–14(20) × 1–7 mm; tips obtuse to acute; surfaces densely villous; stipules 2.5–15 mm; free. |
3.5–7 cm; leaflets 7–11, linear to linear-elliptic; (5)8–20 × 1–3 mm; tips obtuse or sometimes mucronulate; surfaces abaxially strigillose, adaxially glabrous; stipules 1.5–3 mm; free. |
Inflorescences | racemes or subumbels, 1–12-flowered; peduncles 1–14 cm; bracts 4–9 mm; pedicels 2–4.3 mm; bracteoles 0–2. |
racemes loosely 10–18-flowered; peduncles 3–6 cm; bracts 1–1.5 mm; pedicels 1–1.5 mm; bracteoles 0. |
Flowers | ascending at anthesis; calyces 5.5–16(19) mm, often purple, villous-pilose with white or mixed white and black hairs; tubes 8.5–12.5 mm; teeth subulate, 2.2–6 mm; corollas 19–27 mm; whitish to ochroleucous or pink-purple; ovules 14–40(46). |
spreading at anthesis, declined in age; calyces 3–3.3 mm, strigillose with white or a mixture of white and black hairs; tubes 2.3–2.5 mm; teeth triangular, 0.7–0.9 mm; corollas 6.5–7 mm; whitish, tinged with lilac; ovules 8–10. |
Fruits | unilocular, ascending, obliquely ovoid, usually curved, obcompressed, scarcely to deeply sulcate; (7)13–27(30) × 3.5–11 mm, densely white to tawny tomentose or densely villous; hairs nearly always concealing valve surfaces; valves coriaceous, sessile or on gynophores 0–1.6 mm. |
unilocular, spreading or declined, oblong-ellipsoid, |
± | straight, strongly laterally compressed, bicarinate, 8–11 × 2.4 × 3 mm, strigillose; valves thinly cartilaginous; stipes 4–5 mm. |
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Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus applegatei |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Western North America. ~8 varieties; 4 varieties treated in Flora. Throughout western North America, particularly in the Intermountain Region, this is a low, tufted milkvetch with white or gray villous hairs and pods resembling balls of cotton. Barneby (1964) stated, “Attempts to devise a practical key to the varieties of A. purshii are never wholly successful.” Variety ophiogenes, the Snake River milkvetch, a native of Idaho, has been reported from Malheur County, but this is apparently based on misidentifications of A. purshii var. lagopinus. Variety ophiogenes has 3–11-flowered racemes and 9–17 leaflets. |
Moist meadows, ditches, wet flats. Flowering Jun–Jul. 1200–1400 m. ECas. Native. Endemic to Oregon. Applegate’s milkvetch is currently known only from Klamath County, Oregon. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 658 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | |
Web links |
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