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Photo is of parent taxon

spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch

Photo is of parent taxon

Mount Dana kentrophyta, spiny milkvetch, Sweetwater Mountains. milk vetch

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

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
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
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 Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Ervoidei > Astragalus kentrophyta Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Ervoidei > Astragalus kentrophyta
Sibling taxa
A. kentrophyta var. coloradoensis, A. kentrophyta var. danaus, A. kentrophyta var. douglasii, A. kentrophyta var. jessiae, A. kentrophyta var. kentrophyta, A. kentrophyta var. neomexicanus, A. kentrophyta var. tegetarius, A. kentrophyta var. ungulatus
A. kentrophyta var. coloradoensis, A. kentrophyta var. douglasii, A. kentrophyta var. elatus, A. kentrophyta var. jessiae, A. kentrophyta var. kentrophyta, A. kentrophyta var. neomexicanus, A. kentrophyta var. tegetarius, A. kentrophyta var. ungulatus
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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