Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus platytropis |
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Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
broad-keeled milkweed |
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Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, ± acaulescent, densely tufted, with a thatch of persistent leaf bases, silvery- or gray-strigillose or sericeous, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
prostrate or ascending to erect, often buried, 0–2 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. |
1–9 cm; leaflets 5–15, elliptic to obovate, oblong or oval, 2–11 × 1.5–7 mm; tips acute to obtuse or retuse; surfaces silvery strigose; stipules 1.5–5 mm; at least lowermost connate-sheathing. |
Inflorescences | racemes or subumbels, 1–12-flowered; peduncles 1–14 cm; bracts 4–9 mm; pedicels 2–4.3 mm; bracteoles 0–2. |
racemes or subumbels, 2–9-flowered; peduncles scapiform, 1.5–6.5 cm; bracts 0.6–2 mm; pedicels 0.7–1.9 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 at anthesis; calyces 2.5–4.5 mm, strigose with white hairs or a mixture of white and black hairs; tubes 2–3.4 mm; teeth subulate or triangular, 0.5–2 mm; corollas 6–9.5 mm; whitish or pink-purple, tinged distally with lilac; ovules 24–34. |
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, ascending, humistrate; bladdery inflated; ovoid to subglobose, 15–33 × 10–22 mm, purple-mottled, strigillose; valves papery; stipes 0. |
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus platytropis |
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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. |
Ridge tops, screes, roadsides, talus. Flowering Jun–Aug. 1500–2000 m. BR. CA, ID, NV; northeast to MT, southeast to UT. Native. In Oregon, A. platytropis is the only acaulescent, montane Astragalus with basifixed hairs and sessile, bladdery, bilocular fruits. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | |
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