Astragalus kentrophyta var. elatus |
Astragalus kentrophyta var. tegetarius |
|
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spiny leaf milk vetch, tall kentrophyta, tall spiny milkvetch |
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 |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; UT; WY |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WY |
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 | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
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) |
Web links |