Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus umbraticus |
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Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
Bald Mountain milkvetch, sylvan milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, thinly villous, glabrate, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
several, spreading to ascending, 20–50 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. |
4–12 cm; leaflets 11–23, broadly oblong; ovate, or obovate to suborbicular, 4–20 × 2.5–8 mm; tips retuse or obtuse; surfaces glabrate to ciliate; stipules 3.5–9.5 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 but shortly 10–25-flowered; peduncles 5–12 cm; bracts 1.7–4 mm; pedicels 0.6–1.2 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 to declined at anthesis; calyces 5.2–7 mm, thinly strigillose with dark hairs; tubes 3.1–4 mm; teeth subulate, 2.1–3.2 mm; corollas 10–14 mm, cream; greenish white, pale yellow, or ochroleucous, unspotted; ovules 10–15. |
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, spreading or declined, lunately or falcately linear-lanceolate or linear, incurved to a half-circle, compressed triquetrous, 14–24 × 2.5–3.6 mm, glabrous; valves papery to thinly coriaceous; stipes 1–1.9 mm. |
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus umbraticus |
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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. |
Oak and pine woodlands, ridges, burned areas. Flowering May–Jul. 400–1300 m. Casc, Sisk. Native. Endemic to Oregon. This species is endemic to southwestern Oregon. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 671 Richard Halse |
Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 676 Richard Halse |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Astragalus purshii var. ophiogenes | |
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