Flora of North America species comparison

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Astragalus canadensis var. brevidens

Astragalus sect. Uliginosi
Photo is of parent taxon

Canada milk-vetch, Canadian milk-vetch, pasture milkvetch, short tooth milk vetch, short-tooth Canadian milkvetch
Habit Herbs perennial, caulescent; from rootstock or creeping rhizomes.
Stems

branched, slender, sometimes decumbent and ascending, (10–)15–55(–75) cm.

single or few.
Leaves

5–15(–23) cm;

leaflets (7–)15–23(or 25), blades (5–)7–30(–40) mm, apex usually apiculate.

odd-pinnate, short-petiolate or subsessile;

leaflets (7 or)9–35.
Racemes

(2.5–)4–9.5(–15) × 2.5–3.5 cm, flowers (11.7–)12.5–17(–17.5) mm.

usually densely, rarely loosely flowered, flowers spreading-declined or nodding.
Peduncles

stout, (4–)5–15(–20) cm, longer or shorter than leaves.

Pedicels

1.2–3.5(–4) mm.

Flowers

calyx (6.8–)7.1–10.5(–11) mm, lobes 1–2.5(–3) mm, adaxial pair nearly always broadly triangular or deltate (and mostly shorter) than the rest;

corolla ochroleucous, stramineous, or greenish white.

Corollas

ochroleucous, greenish white, or stramineous, banner recurved through 40–90°, keel apex obtuse.
Calyx

tubes short-cylindric or deeply campanulate.
Legumes

grooved dorsally, (9–)10–15 × 2.9–4(–4.5) mm, beak 1.5–3 mm, mostly at least moderately strigulose;

septum 1.5–3 mm wide.

persistent, sessile or subsessile, erect or narrowly ascending, cylindroid or oblong, terete or slightly obcompressed, straight or incurved, bilocular.
Seeds

(17 or)18–25(–28).

(16–)18–28.
Stipules

(3–)4–14 mm, proximalmost ruptured in some very robust specimens.

connate.
Hairs

malpighian.
2n

= 16.

Astragalus canadensis var. brevidens

Astragalus sect. Uliginosi
Phenology Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat Moist but often summer-dry bottomlands, ditches, creek banks with willows, lake­shores, sagebrush hillsides, near springs and seeps, alkaline meadows, depressions on rolling plains, rarely on dry sandy or gravelly soils of brushy hills or lava flows, on stiff, often alkaline, alluvial soils of diverse origin, with sagebrush but ascending along water courses into xeric pine forests.
Elevation 400–2500 m. (1300–8200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC
[BONAP county map]
North America; e Asia
Discussion

Variety brevidens is the more xeric form of Astragalus canadensis. It is partly sympatric with var. mortonii, but var. mortonii is usually of higher, more mesic, wooded habitats. No single feature distinguishes vars. brevidens and mortonii. In Utah, var. brevidens intergrades with var. canadensis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 10 (2 in the flora).

Section Uliginosi consists of eight species from eastern Asia and two from North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Uliginosi > Astragalus canadensis Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus
Sibling taxa
A. canadensis var. canadensis, A. canadensis var. mortonii
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms A. mortonii, A. brevidens
Name authority (Gandoger) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 238. (1946) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 196. (1864)
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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