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Photo is of parent taxon

spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch

Photo is of parent taxon

mat milk vetch, mountain kentrophyta

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, cushion-forming, 5–40(–50) cm wide.
Stems

and herbage strigulose, hairs malpighian.

and herbage densely to sparsely strigulose, villosulous, or villous, 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.

(0.2–)0.4–1.5(–2) cm;

stipules 2–7 mm;

leaflets (3 or)5–9, blades 1–9 mm, surfaces pubescent or adaxially glabrous or medially glabrescent.

Peduncles

0.1–0.6 cm.

0–1.5(–3) 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.

(3.9–)4.5–8(–9.2) mm;

calyx (2–)2.4–5.7(–7) mm, tube 1.2–2.6(–2.8) mm, lobes subulate to setaceous, (0.5–)1.9–2.6(–4.2) mm;

corolla usually purple or purplish, sometimes white and keel tip pink or purplish.

Legumes

narrowly ovoid-acuminate, (3.5–)4–7 × 1.5–2 mm.

ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid, (3–)4–8(–9) × (0.6–)2–2.5 mm.

Seeds

2–4.

(3–)5–8.

2n

= 24.

= 24.

Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus

Astragalus kentrophyta var. tegetarius

Phenology Flowering Jun–Sep. Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat Mixed desert and salt desert shrub, juniper-pinyon, ponderosa pine, bristlecone pine, and pine-spruce communities, floodplains. Ridgetops, breaks, alpine shrub and tundra with Phlox, Geum rossii, other forbs, grasses, less commonly with shrubs and trees, often in barrens.
Elevation 1500–2900(–3200) m. (4900–9500(–10500) ft.) 2000–3700 m. (6600–12100 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WY
[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.)

The moderately large, usually purplish flowers borne just above the mat of foliage set var. tegetarius apart and make it one of the showiest phases of the species.

(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. danaus, A. kentrophyta var. douglasii, A. kentrophyta var. elatus, A. kentrophyta var. jessiae, A. kentrophyta var. kentrophyta, A. kentrophyta var. neomexicanus, A. kentrophyta var. ungulatus
Synonyms A. impensus A. tegetarius, A. aculeatus, A. kentrophyta subsp. implexus, A. kentrophyta var. implexus, A. kentrophyta var. rotundus, A. montanus var. rotundus, A. montanus var. tegetarius, A. tegetarius var. implexus, A. tegetarius var. rotundus, Homalobus aculeatus, H. tegetarius, H. wolfii, Kentrophyta aculeata, K. minima, K. rotunda, K. tegetaria, K. wolfii, Tragacantha tegetaria
Name authority S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 77. (1871) (S. Watson) Dorn: Vasc. Pl. Wyoming, 297. (1988)
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