Astragalus lentiginosus var. ineptus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. fremontii |
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freckled milkvetch, fumbling milk vetch, homely milkvetch |
Fremont's milk vetch, Frémont's freckled milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, (1–)3–30 cm, herbage loosely strigulose or villosulous. | Plants annual, biennial, or perennial (short-lived), (4–)8–35(–40) cm. |
Leaves | 1.5–5.5 cm; leaflets (9–)15–21, crowded, blades obovate or oblanceolate, (1–)2–10 mm, apex obtuse or retuse. |
(3–)4–9(–12) cm; leaflets (9 or)11–19, blades ovate- or obovate-cuneate, broadly oblanceolate, or rhombic-elliptic, 5–19 mm, apex usually obtuse or emarginate, rarely subacute. |
Racemes | (4–)10–21-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (0.3–)1–2.5 cm in fruit. |
loosely (8–)10–30-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (2.5–)4–11(–16) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 0.5–2 cm. |
2.5–8.5(–10) cm. |
Flowers | (8.8–)9.8–12 mm; calyx (4.8–)5.4–7.3 mm, tube (3.6–)3.9–4.9 mm, lobes (1–)1.2–2.4 mm; corolla whitish or cream, sometimes with pink tips. |
9.1–12(–12.4) mm; calyx (3.4–)3.8–6(–7.9) mm, tube (2.8–)3–4.5 mm, lobes (0.6–)0.9–2(–3.5) mm; corolla usually bright purple, rarely pink-lilac to pure white. |
Legumes | usually faintly mottled becoming stramineous, plumply ovoid- or ellipsoid-acuminate, strongly inflated, 10–18 × (5–)6–12 mm, thinly papery, strigulose or, sometimes, glabrous; beak erect or incurved, deltoid, 3–5 mm, unilocular. |
pale green, often purple-freckled or purple-mottled, usually broadly and plumply ovoid-acuminate, rarely quite narrowly so, nearly always bladdery-inflated, 14–27(–36) × (5–)8–18 mm, ± bilocular, papery-membranous, subtranslucent, glabrous or sparsely strigulose-villosulous; beak (2–)3–7(–10) mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (12–)14–19. |
(17–)19–31. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. ineptus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. fremontii |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering late Mar–Jul (Sep–Oct). |
Habitat | Gravelly slopes, ridges, and talus, on coarse granitic sand or volcanic tuff, in bristlecone pine and alpine tundra communities. | Braided stream gravel in riparian communities, gravelly slopes in creosote bush, Joshua tree, juniper, pinyon-juniper, and Jeffrey pine communities. |
Elevation | 1800–3700 m. (5900–12100 ft.) | 700–2500(–2800) m. (2300–8200(–9200) ft.) |
Distribution |
CA |
AZ; CA; NV; UT |
Discussion | Variety ineptus occurs along the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada from Alpine County southward to the Inconsolable Range, Inyo County, Sweetwater Mountains, Mono County, and Bonita Meadows, Tulare County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety fremontii is common from southeastern California across southern Nevada to southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona and may be very abundant when adequate moisture is available at an appropriate time. To the south and west, it grades into the larger-flowered var. variabilis; to the north in western Nevada, it grades into var. kennedyi. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. ineptus | A. fremontii, A. fremontii subsp. eremicus |
Name authority | (A. Gray) M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) | (A. Gray) S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 66. (1871) |
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