Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. douglasii |
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spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch |
Douglas kentrophyta, Douglas' spiny milkvetch, spiny millk-vetch, thistle 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, densely mat-forming, becoming suffruticose. |
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. |
1–1.7 cm; stipules dimorphic, 2–5 mm; leaflets 5(or 7), blades 5–12 mm, surfaces pubescent. |
Peduncles | 0.1–0.6 cm. |
subobsolete. |
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. |
5.8 mm; calyx 4.7–5.2 mm, tube 2.2–2.4 mm, lobes subulate, spinulose, 2.3–3 mm; corolla whitish. |
Legumes | narrowly ovoid-acuminate, (3.5–)4–7 × 1.5–2 mm. |
lanceoloid, 5–5.5 × 2 mm. |
Seeds | 2–4. |
2. |
2n | = 24. |
= 24. |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. douglasii |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Sep. | Flowering Jun. |
Habitat | Mixed desert and salt desert shrub, juniper-pinyon, ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and pine-spruce communities, floodplains. | Sandy substrates. |
Elevation | 1500–2900(–3200) m. (4900–9500(–10500) ft.) | 150–400 m. (500–1300 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY |
OR; WA |
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 douglasii is known from only a few, vague historical records, probably taken near the present city of Walla Walla near the Great Bend of the Columbia River, and appears to be extinct. (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 | S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 77. (1871) | Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 364. (1964) |
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