Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus tweedyi |
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Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
Tweedy's milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, loosely strigillose to villosulous, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
few, ascending to erect, 20–80 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. |
3–10(13) cm; leaflets (7)11–23, narrowly oblong-oblanceolate to linear-oblong, 5–22(25) × 1–2 mm; tips retuse to obtuse; surfaces abaxially strigillose, adaxially strigillose to glabrous; stipules 1–7 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 dense but elongating and becoming looser, 10–35(50)-flowered; peduncles (5)7–15 cm; bracts 1.5–6 mm; pedicels 0.8–2.5 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). |
erect to spreading at anthesis; calyces gibbous-convex at bases, 8–10.5 mm, villous or villous-tomentulose with mostly white hairs; tubes 7.5–9 mm; teeth triangular, 1–2.1 mm; corollas 15–18.6 mm, ochroleucous, unspotted; ovules 12–19. |
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; erect, oblong-ellipsoid; straight or slightly arcuate, laterally compressed, bicarinate, 12–15 × 3–4(5.4) mm, rugulose, sparsely pilosulose or glabrous; valves coriaceous; stipes 6–10 mm. |
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus tweedyi |
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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. |
Dry hillsides, ridges, roadside banks, sagebrush. Flowering May–Jul. 100–1000 m. Col. WA. Native. In Oregon, there are three species of Astragalus that have calyces that are obviously gibbous at the base so that the pedicel is attached obliquely: A. tweedyi, A. collinus, and A. curvicarpus; the three species are closely related. Astragalus tweedyi can be distinguished by its erect fruits, while the other species have pendulous fruits. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 675 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | |
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