Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. danaus |
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spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch |
Mount Dana kentrophyta, spiny milkvetch, Sweetwater Mountains. milk vetch |
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Habit | Plants usually erect or assurgent, rarely trailing, suffruticose and often bushy-branched basally, forming low, prickly bushes, 10–45(–65) cm, sometimes mat-forming. | Plants prostrate, mat- or cushion-forming, to 15 cm wide. |
Stems | and herbage strigulose, hairs malpighian. |
and herbage strigulose, hairs basifixed. |
Leaves | (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. |
0.4–1.5(–2) cm; stipules somewhat dimorphic, 2–7 mm; leaflets 3(–7), blades 3–7 mm. |
Peduncles | 0.1–0.6 cm. |
0.2–0.6 cm. |
Flowers | 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. |
4–5.6 mm; calyx 2.4–3.2 mm, tube 1.6–1.9 mm, lobes subulate to setaceous, 0.8–1.3 mm; corolla purple or whitish and keel purple. |
Legumes | narrowly ovoid-acuminate, (3.5–)4–7 × 1.5–2 mm. |
subsymmetrically lenticular, 3.5–5 × 2–2.5 mm. |
Seeds | 2–4. |
5–8. |
2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. danaus |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Sep. | Flowering Jul–Sep. |
Habitat | Mixed desert and salt desert shrub, juniper-pinyon, ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and pine-spruce communities, floodplains. | Gravelly slopes and talus upward from timberline, or in bristle-cone pine forest. |
Elevation | 1500–2900(–3200) m. (4900–9500(–10500) ft.) | 3000–4000 m. (9800–13100 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY |
CA |
Discussion | 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.) |
Variety danaus is restricted to high elevations in the southern Sierra Nevada. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. impensus | A. tegetarius var. danaus |
Name authority | S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 77. (1871) | (Barneby) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 6: 154. (1951) |
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