Astragalus kentrophyta var. coloradoensis |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
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Canyonlands kentrophyta, Colorado spiny milkvetch |
spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants loosely mat- or clump-forming, low, to 12 cm. | Plants usually erect or assurgent, rarely trailing, suffruticose and often bushy-branched basally, forming low, prickly bushes, 10–45(–65) cm, sometimes mat-forming. |
Stems | and herbage strigulose, hairs malpighian. |
and herbage strigulose, hairs malpighian. |
Leaves | 0.9–2.4 cm; stipules 1–12 mm; leaflets (3 or)5(or 7), blades 4–15 mm, surfaces pubescent. |
(0.8–)1–2.6 cm; stipules dimorphic, those at proximal nodes connate with bidentate tip, those at distal nodes connate near base with spiny tips, 1–12 mm; leaflets (3 or)5 or 7, blades (2–)5–15(–17) mm, surfaces usually pubescent, sometimes glabrous adaxially. |
Peduncles | 0.2–0.6 cm. |
0.1–0.6 cm. |
Flowers | 7.3–10 mm; calyx 6–8.3 mm, tube 2.4–3.3 mm, lobes subulate, spinulose, 3.4–5 mm; corolla pink-purple. |
4.8–6.2 mm; calyx 3.4–4.4 mm, tube 1.8–2.3 mm, lobes subulate, spinulose, 1.5–2.4 mm; corolla usually whitish or faintly veined or tinged purple, fading ochroleucous, rarely pink-purple. |
Legumes | subsymmetrically ellipsoid, lanceoloid- or oblong-ellipsoid, (5–)7–10 × 2.8–4 mm. |
narrowly ovoid-acuminate, (3.5–)4–7 × 1.5–2 mm. |
Seeds | 4–8. |
2–4. |
2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. coloradoensis |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Jun–Sep. |
Habitat | Sandy wash bottoms, sandy pockets on sandstone rimrock, in mixed desert shrub communities. | Mixed desert and salt desert shrub, juniper-pinyon, ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and pine-spruce communities, floodplains. |
Elevation | 900–1700 m. (3000–5600 ft.) | 1500–2900(–3200) m. (4900–9500(–10500) ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; UT |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY |
Discussion | Variety coloradoensis is known from north-central Arizona and south-central Utah. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Both erect and prostrate phases are known, which at maturity form ascending or sprawling tangles of untidy, branched stems with prickly leaves, hence an alternative common name of barb-wire kentrophyta. The prostrate phases, typically from upper-middle elevations, simulate var. tegetarius, which has basifixed hairs. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. impensus | |
Name authority | M. E. Jones: Contr. W. Bot. 10: 63. (1902) | S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 77. (1871) |
Web links |