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clay milkvetch

Habit Plants forming loose tufts. Herbs perennial, selenophytes, loosely tufted, ill-scented, caulescent; caudex usually superficial.
Stems

several to many.

Leaves

odd-pinnate, petiolate;

leaflets (5 or)7–21, terminal leaflet usually jointed, rarely confluent.

Racemes

densely or loosely flowered, flowers ascending.

Peduncles

5–10 cm.

Flowers

9–10.5 mm;

calyx 6–10 mm, hirsute, tube 3–4.5 mm;

corolla usually reddish lilac, reddish purple, or blue, rarely white.

Corollas

whitish to cream, lemon yellow, ochroleucous, reddish to lilac, or pink-purple, banner recurved through 45(–90)°, keel apex obtuse.

Calyx

tubes campanulate or turbinate-campanulate.

Legumes

eventually deciduous, sessile, erect, ascending, or spreading, ovoid or oblong to ellipsoid, compressed dorsiventrally, laterally, or obcompressed, unilocular.

Seeds

8–11.

4–17.

Hairs

basifixed or malpighian.

Stipules

connate or distinct at distal nodes.

Astragalus flavus var. argillosus

Astragalus sect. Ocreati

Phenology Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat Cretaceous Mancos Shale and Jurassic Summerville, Cedar Mountain, and Morrison formations, on saline clays and silts with salt desert shrubs.
Elevation 1200–1800 m. (3900–5900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
UT
w United States
Discussion

Variety argillosus is common in east-central Utah.

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

Species 3 (3 in the flora).

Section Ocreati consists of two subsections distributed from southern Nevada eastward and northward to northern New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. The subsections are: subsect. Ocreati (A. Gray) Barneby (Astragalus flavus, A. sophoroides); and subsect. Moencoppenses Barneby (A. moencoppensis).

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

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Ocreati > Astragalus flavus Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus
Sibling taxa
A. flavus var. flavus, A. flavus var. higginsii
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms A. argillosus
Name authority (M. E. Jones) Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 401. (1964) A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 201. (1864)
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