Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus eremiticus |
|
---|---|---|
Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
hermit milkvetch |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, thinly to densely strigillose, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
several, ascending to erect, 10–50 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)4.5–18 cm; leaflets ovate, elliptic to oblong, 5–26 × 1.5–6 mm; tips obtuse to retuse; surfaces abaxially strigillose, adaxially glabrate to glabrous; stipules 3–11 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 10–25-flowered; peduncles (1.5)2.5–17 cm; bracts 1.5–4 mm; pedicels 0.7–3.5 mm; bracteoles 0–2. |
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). |
ascending, spreading, or declined at anthesis; calyces subsymmetric or strongly oblique at bases, 5.5–9.5 mm, strigillose with black or mixture of black and white hairs; tubes 4.5–8 mm; teeth triangular to subulate, 1–2.5 mm; corollas 12–20 mm, ochroleucous with keel tips usually purple, or petals purple with yellowish wing tips; ovules 17–32. |
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. |
bilocular; erect; straight or nearly so, oblong to ellipsoid, trigonous, dorsally sulcate, 12–27(30) × 3.5–9 mm, glabrous; valves chartaceous or coriaceous; stipes 6–15(17) mm. |
2n | =24. |
|
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus eremiticus |
|
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. |
Ash-clay hillsides, grassy slopes, sagebrush-bunchgrass communities. Flowering Apr–Jul. 500–1800 m. BR, BW, Owy. ID, NV; southeast to AZ. Native. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2 draft Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | Astragalus eremiticus var. eremiticus, Astragalus eremiticus var. malheurensis, Astragalus eremiticus var. spencianus, Astragalus malheurensis |
Web links |
|