Astragalus lentiginosus var. floribundus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
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Carson city milkvetch, floriferous freckled milkvetch, floriferous milk vetch, freckled milkvetch |
freckled milkvetch, shining freckled milkvetch, shining milk vetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 20–50 cm. | Plants perennial, clump-forming, 20–40 cm, herbage silvery- or white-silky, hairs 1.1–2 mm. |
Stems | prostrate to weakly ascending, branched proximally. |
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Leaves | 3–8(–11) cm; leaflets 11–15(–19), blades obovate or oblanceolate, 5–15 mm, apex retuse, surfaces glabrate to densely strigulose, hairs appressed or subappressed. |
4.5–9.5 cm; leaflets 11–17, blades usually narrowly to broadly obovate or ovate, rarely rhombic-suborbiculate, 5–14 mm, apex truncate-emarginate to subacute. |
Racemes | (11–)15–30(–37)-flowered, short and dense, cylindric or globose in fruit; axis 1–4(–7) cm in fruit. |
loosely (12–)20–35-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4.5–10(–15) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1–4(–7) cm. |
4.5–9 cm. |
Flowers | 8.8–11 mm; calyx 4–6.5 mm, tube 3–4 mm, lobes 0.6–1.4(–2) mm; corolla whitish, sometimes wings and keel with lavender tips. |
12.2–14.3 mm; calyx 6–7.6 mm, tube 4.5–4.9 mm, lobes 1.4–2.6 mm; corolla pink-lavender. |
Legumes | faintly mottled becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, (8–)12–21 × (6–)7–12 mm, thinly papery, translucent, glabrous or strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. |
green, unmottled, obliquely ovoid, inflated, 15–20 × 8–10 mm, bilocular, stiffly papery, densely silky-villous-tomentulose; beak 2.5–4 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 15–21(–25). |
23–28. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. floribundus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Sagebrush communities, on sandy, granitic, or basaltic substrates. | Forming large clumps over low slopes of mobile dunes. |
Elevation | 1100–1600(–2100) m. (3600–5200(–6900) ft.) | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; OR |
CA; NV |
Discussion | Variety floribundus is the only member of Astragalus lentiginosus in the Lake Tahoe area; it occurs along the eastern flanks of the Sierra Nevada, passing into var. ineptus in Mono County, and extends northward into southeastern Oregon, where it grades into var. salinus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety micans is a local adjunct of the variable var. variabilis (D. Isely 1998), restricted to the southern end of Eureka Valley in Inyo County, California, and adjacent to Big Dune and in the Amargosa Desert, near Lathrop Wells in Nye County, Nevada. Isely questioned its recognition at varietal rank, initially considering it a local dune-specialized ecotype. Although it is ordinarily a strong perennial, some plants are evidently short-lived, a feature shared with var. coulteri. Variety micans is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 524. (1865) | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 8: 22. (1956) |
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