Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus gambellianus |
|
---|---|---|
Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
Gambel's dwarf milkvetch, little blue loco |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants annual, caulescent, pilosulose, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
1–several; erect to ascending, 3–30 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. |
1–4 cm; leaflets 7–15, oblong to oblanceolate, linear-oblanceolate, 1–9 × 1–2 mm; tips retuse; surfaces abaxially pubescent, adaxially pubescent or glabrescent; stipules 1–3 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 4–15-flowered; peduncles (1)2–5(6) cm; bracts 0.5–1.3 mm; pedicels 0.2–0.9 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). |
deflexed at anthesis; calyces 1.8–2.5 mm; black-pilosulose; tubes 1.1–1.7 mm; teeth subulate or triangular, 0.5–0.9 mm; corollas 2.5–3.3 mm; whitish-tinged, veined or margined with lavender or blue; ovules 2. |
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, deflexed, broadly ovate or nearly circular in dorsal view, strongly obcompressed, 2.8–4.2 × 2.4–3.6 mm, hirsutulous to strigillose; valves papery; stipes 0. |
2n | =22. |
|
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus gambellianus |
|
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. |
Grassy slopes, clearings in chaparral. Flowering May–Jun. 600–1300 m. Sisk. CA; south to Mexico. Native. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 664 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | |
Web links |
|
|