Astragalus lentiginosus var. ineptus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius |
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freckled milkvetch, fumbling milk vetch, homely milkvetch |
broad-leaf freckled milkvetch, broad-leaf milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, (1–)3–30 cm, herbage loosely strigulose or villosulous. | Plants perennial, (7–)10–30(–35) cm. |
Leaves | 1.5–5.5 cm; leaflets (9–)15–21, crowded, blades obovate or oblanceolate, (1–)2–10 mm, apex obtuse or retuse. |
(4–)5–11 cm; leaflets (7–)11–17(or 19), blades usually broadly obovate-cuneate, elliptic, or suborbiculate, rarely rhombic-elliptic, (4–)7–20 mm, apex usually obtuse, retuse, truncate, or apiculate, rarely acute. |
Racemes | (4–)10–21-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (0.3–)1–2.5 cm in fruit. |
shortly and loosely (5–)7–15-flowered, flowering from near or proximal to middle nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis little elongating, 1–3.5 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 0.5–2 cm. |
1–5 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. |
(12.6–)14–21.4 mm; calyx (8–)8.5–12.5 mm, tube (5–)5.5–8(–9) mm, lobes 2.4–5 mm; corolla usually whitish, rarely purple. |
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. |
variable in length, outline, and curvature, pale green or purple-speckled becoming stramineous or brownish, plumply ovoid or narrowly lanceoloid-ellipsoid, (13–)15–40(–48) × 7–14 mm, ± bilocular, strongly or slightly inflated, ± fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely strigulose; beak deltoid or lanceolate-acuminate, 5–15 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (12–)14–19. |
(21–)24–32(–38). |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. ineptus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | Flowering May–Jul. |
Habitat | Gravelly slopes, ridges, and talus, on coarse granitic sand or volcanic tuff, in bristlecone pine and alpine tundra communities. | Arid plains, hillsides, and valley floors, on basalt, with sagebrush. |
Elevation | 1800–3700 m. (5900–12100 ft.) | 600–1900(–2100) m. (2000–6200(–6900) ft.) |
Distribution |
CA |
CA; CO; ID; NV; OR; UT; WY |
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 platyphyllidius is dispersed widely from eastern Oregon and northeastern California, across southern Idaho into western Wyoming, northeastern Nevada, and barely into northern Utah and northwestern Colorado. It is apparently common only locally, distinguished by its typically pale flowers and thick-textured fruits (approximate length of two times width or less). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. ineptus | Cystium platyphyllidium, A. lentiginosus var. cornutus, A. merrillii, C. cornutum, C. merrillii |
Name authority | (A. Gray) M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) | (Rydberg) M. Peck: Man. Pl. Oregon, 449. (1941) — (as platyphyllidium) |
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