Flora of North America species comparison

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Aspalthium
Habit Herbs, perennial, sometimes suffrutescent, rarely shrubs, unarmed.
Stems

erect to spreading, sparsely to densely pubescent, gland-dotted.
Leaves

alternate, odd-pinnate;

stipules present;

petiolate;

leaflets 3, stipels absent, blade margins entire [denticulate], surfaces glabrous or pubescent, gland-dotted.
Inflorescences

7–15-flowered, axillary, racemes [pseudoracemes], dense, headlike;

bracts present.
Flowers

papilionaceous;

calyx campanulate, lobes 5, unequal;

corolla usually blue-violet, sometimes bicolored [white];

stamens 10, diadelphous [monadelphous];

anthers dorsifixed;

style glabrous;

stigma penicillate.
Fruits

legumes, substipitate, compressed, straight, ovoid, with well-defined swordlike beak, indehiscent, pubescent to hirsute.
Seed

1, oblong to reniform.
x

= 10.

Aspalthium
Distribution
Europe (Mediterranean region); w Asia (Israel); Atlantic Islands (Macaronesia) [Introduced, California]
Discussion

Species 5 (1 in the flora).

Aspalthium is sometimes cultivated as a forage crop in Europe (C. H. Stirton 1981), under the generic name Bituminaria Heister ex Fabricius, which is an illegitimate name. Of the four additional species in the genus, two are sometimes also cultivated for forage. A key to species in the genus (but treated as Bituminaria) is given by P. Minissale et al. (2013).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11. Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae
Subordinate taxa
A. bituminosum
Name authority Medikus: Vorles. Churpfälz. Phys.-Öcon. Ges. 2: 380. (1787)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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