The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links
Photo is of parent taxon

Higgins' freckled milkvetch, Higgins' milkvetch

Photo is of parent taxon

freckled milkvetch, Mount Trumbull milkvetch

Habit Plants perennial, 15–25 cm. Plants perennial, 30–45(–65) cm, herbage green or subglabrescent.
Leaves

3–11 cm;

leaflets 15–21, blades lanceolate-elliptic to obovate, 8–18 mm, apex emarginate.

2–9.5(–10.5) cm;

leaflets (7–)13–17, blades broadly obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, 5–15 mm, apex retuse to round or subacute, adaxial surface usually strigose to strigulose, sometimes glabrate or glabrous.

Racemes

7–17-flowered, short and compact in fruit;

axis 1–4 cm in fruit.

loosely 4–15(–17)-flowered;

axis elongating, 3–9.5 cm in fruit.

Peduncles

3–6.5 cm.

4.5–7.5 cm.

Flowers

17–20 mm;

calyx 7–10.4 mm, tube 6–6.8 mm, lobes 3–3.5 mm;

corolla pale violet.

13–17 mm;

calyx 6.3–7.4 mm, tube 4.8–5.5 mm, lobes 1.7–2 mm;

corolla pink- or red-purple, sometimes with pale or white wing tips.

Legumes

green, sometimes mottled, becoming stramineous, ovoid, greatly inflated, 19–27 × 11–16(–19) mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, thinly translucent, glabrous.

evidently persistent, stramineous or mottled, linear-oblong to oblong or narrowly ellipsoid, not or scarcely inflated, 17–32 × 4–5.5(–7.5) mm, ± bilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, strigulose;

beak 3–5 mm, unilocular;

stipe 0.1–1 mm.

Seeds

30–35.

14–28.

Astragalus lentiginosus var. higginsii

Astragalus lentiginosus var. trumbullensis

Phenology Flowering Apr–early Jun. Flowering Apr (Sep).
Habitat Sandy to loamy soils, with Ptelea-Rhus-Prosopis, and yucca, oak, mesquite com­munities. Sandstone outcrops and gravel, with Agave, Ephedra, Mortonia, Purshia, and other warm-desert shrubs.
Elevation 800–1100 m. (2600–3600 ft.) 900–1800 m. (3000–5900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
NM; TX
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety higginsii, from Chaves County in New Mexico, and Hudspeth, Hutchinson, and Potter counties in Texas, almost certainly is a derivative of var. diphysus, differing only in its pale flowers.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Variety trumbullensis is restricted to Mohave County. It is closely related to vars. mokiacensis and palans, weakly differentiated by a series of features that intergrade insensibly but taken in combination are more or less diagnostic (as is true for most members of the lentiginosus complex). J. A. Alexander (2005) provided statistical evidence that this variety is indistinguishable from var. mokiacensis (as Astragalus mokiacensis), and he considered the two synonymous.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Diphysi > Astragalus lentiginosus Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Diphysi > Astragalus lentiginosus
Sibling taxa
A. lentiginosus var. albifolius, A. lentiginosus var. ambiguus, A. lentiginosus var. antonius, A. lentiginosus var. australis, A. lentiginosus var. chartaceus, A. lentiginosus var. coachellae, A. lentiginosus var. coulteri, A. lentiginosus var. diphysus, A. lentiginosus var. floribundus, A. lentiginosus var. fremontii, A. lentiginosus var. idriensis, A. lentiginosus var. ineptus, A. lentiginosus var. kennedyi, A. lentiginosus var. kernensis, A. lentiginosus var. latus, A. lentiginosus var. lentiginosus, A. lentiginosus var. macrolobus, A. lentiginosus var. maricopae, A. lentiginosus var. micans, A. lentiginosus var. mokiacensis, A. lentiginosus var. multiracemosus, A. lentiginosus var. negundo, A. lentiginosus var. nigricalycis, A. lentiginosus var. oropedii, A. lentiginosus var. palans, A. lentiginosus var. piscinensis, A. lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius, A. lentiginosus var. pohlii, A. lentiginosus var. salinus, A. lentiginosus var. scorpionis, A. lentiginosus var. semotus, A. lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis, A. lentiginosus var. sierrae, A. lentiginosus var. stramineus, A. lentiginosus var. toyabensis, A. lentiginosus var. trumbullensis, A. lentiginosus var. variabilis, A. lentiginosus var. vitreus, A. lentiginosus var. wahweapensis, A. lentiginosus var. wilsonii, A. lentiginosus var. yuccanus
A. lentiginosus var. albifolius, A. lentiginosus var. ambiguus, A. lentiginosus var. antonius, A. lentiginosus var. australis, A. lentiginosus var. chartaceus, A. lentiginosus var. coachellae, A. lentiginosus var. coulteri, A. lentiginosus var. diphysus, A. lentiginosus var. floribundus, A. lentiginosus var. fremontii, A. lentiginosus var. higginsii, A. lentiginosus var. idriensis, A. lentiginosus var. ineptus, A. lentiginosus var. kennedyi, A. lentiginosus var. kernensis, A. lentiginosus var. latus, A. lentiginosus var. lentiginosus, A. lentiginosus var. macrolobus, A. lentiginosus var. maricopae, A. lentiginosus var. micans, A. lentiginosus var. mokiacensis, A. lentiginosus var. multiracemosus, A. lentiginosus var. negundo, A. lentiginosus var. nigricalycis, A. lentiginosus var. oropedii, A. lentiginosus var. palans, A. lentiginosus var. piscinensis, A. lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius, A. lentiginosus var. pohlii, A. lentiginosus var. salinus, A. lentiginosus var. scorpionis, A. lentiginosus var. semotus, A. lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis, A. lentiginosus var. sierrae, A. lentiginosus var. stramineus, A. lentiginosus var. toyabensis, A. lentiginosus var. variabilis, A. lentiginosus var. vitreus, A. lentiginosus var. wahweapensis, A. lentiginosus var. wilsonii, A. lentiginosus var. yuccanus
Name authority S. L. Welsh & K. H. Thorne: Brittonia 33: 296, fig. 2. (1981) S. L. Welsh & N. D. Atwood: Rhodora 103: 81, fig. 3. (2001)
Web links