Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus vallaris |
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Pursh's milkvetch, woollypod milkvetch |
Snake Canyon milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, acaulescent to shortly caulescent, densely villous to villous-tomentose, hairs basifixed. | Plants perennial, caulescent, sparsely strigose to glabrous, hairs basifixed. |
Stems | prostrate, loosely to densely tufted, 0–20 cm. |
numerous, decumbent, 8–40 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 cm; leaflets 13–25(29), oblanceolate or obovate-cuneate, 6–17 × 3–8 mm; tips obtuse or retuse or mucronulate; surfaces abaxially sparsely strigose on the margins and midribs, adaxially glabrous; stipules 2.5–5 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 shortly but loosely 5–10-flowered; peduncles 2–6 cm; bracts 2–4 mm; pedicels 1.5–5 mm; bracteoles 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 (8)9.5–11 mm, strigillose with black hairs; tubes 5.5–6.5 mm; teeth linear-subulate, 3.5–4.5 mm; corollas 16–23 mm; whitish; ovules 26–28. |
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, obliquely oblong-ovoid, slightly incurved, obcompressed, shallowly sulcate on dorsal and ventral surfaces, 20–40 × (9)11–19 mm, rugose, glabrous; valves woody; stipes 5–20 mm. |
Astragalus purshii |
Astragalus vallaris |
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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. |
Roadsides, hillsides, sagebrush and bunchgrass communities. Flowering Apr–Jun. 600–1300 m. BR, BW, Owy. ID. Native. |
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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