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Columbian milk-vetch

alpine milk-vetch, purple milk-vetch

Habit Silky but greenish perennial with widespread rhizomes, the stems slender, ascending to erect, 5-20 cm. long.
Leaves

Leaves alternate, pinnate, 5-20 cm. long;

stipules 1-3 mm. long, deltoid, mostly fused;

leaflets 13-23, ovate to oblong-elliptic, 5-15 mm. long;

peduncles equaling or exceeding the leaves.

Flowers

Racemes closely 10- to 30-flowered, elongate, lax; pedicles about 1 mm. long;

flowers 7-12 mm long, pale lilac to purplish, the keel darkest in color, equalling the banner and exceeding the wings;

calyx black-hairy, 3-4.5 mm. long, the teeth half the length of the tube.

Fruits

Pod pendulous, with a stipe about equal to the calyx teeth, the body black-hairy, narrowly ellipsoid, 8-12 mm. long, cordate-triangular in cross-section, the lower suture intruded to form a nearly complete partition.

Astragalus columbianus

Astragalus alpinus

Flowering time April-May June-August
Habitat Dry, open areas in shrub-steppe. Open slopes and rocky areas from upper montane to alpine.
Distribution
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington, where endemic to south-central Washington.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Occurring east of the Cascades crest in the north-central region of Washington; Alaska to northeastern Oregon and northeastern Nevada, east to the Rocky Mountains; circumboreal.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Native Native
Conservation status Sensitive in Washington (WANHP) Not of concern
Sibling taxa
A. agrestis, A. alpinus, A. arrectus, A. arthuri, A. arthurii, A. asotinensis, A. australis, A. beckwithii, A. canadensis, A. caricinus, A. cicer, A. collinus, A. conjunctus, A. cusickii, A. diaphanus, A. eucosmus, A. falcatus, A. filipes, A. geyeri, A. hoodianus, A. howellii, A. inflexus, A. kentrophyta, A. laxmannii, A. leibergii, A. lentiginosus, A. lyallii, A. microcystis, A. misellus, A. miser, A. pulsiferae, A. purshii, A. reventiformis, A. reventus, A. riparius, A. robbinsii, A. sclerocarpus, A. sheldonii, A. sinuatus, A. spaldingii, A. speirocarpus, A. succumbens, A. tenellus, A. tweedyi, A. whitneyi
A. agrestis, A. arrectus, A. arthuri, A. arthurii, A. asotinensis, A. australis, A. beckwithii, A. canadensis, A. caricinus, A. cicer, A. collinus, A. columbianus, A. conjunctus, A. cusickii, A. diaphanus, A. eucosmus, A. falcatus, A. filipes, A. geyeri, A. hoodianus, A. howellii, A. inflexus, A. kentrophyta, A. laxmannii, A. leibergii, A. lentiginosus, A. lyallii, A. microcystis, A. misellus, A. miser, A. pulsiferae, A. purshii, A. reventiformis, A. reventus, A. riparius, A. robbinsii, A. sclerocarpus, A. sheldonii, A. sinuatus, A. spaldingii, A. speirocarpus, A. succumbens, A. tenellus, A. tweedyi, A. whitneyi
Subordinate taxa
A. alpinus var. alpinus
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