Astragalus lentiginosus var. lentiginosus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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freckled milk-vetch, specklepod milk-vetch |
scorpion milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 10–30(–50) cm, sparsely strigulose. | Plants perennial, 5–30 cm. |
Leaves | 3–10 cm; leaflets (5–)9–17(or 19), blades broadly obovate, obovate-cuneate, or oblong-elliptic to suborbiculate or oblanceolate, (3–)5–15 mm, apex retuse or obtuse. |
3–10 cm; leaflets 13–19, blades oval, obovate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 5–15 mm, apex subacute, truncate, or retuse. |
Racemes | 8–18(–22)-flowered; axis 0.5–3(–3.5) cm in fruit. |
8–18-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–5) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1–3.5 cm. |
1.5–6(–8) cm. |
Flowers | 7.4–11 mm; calyx 4.1–6.4 mm, tube 2.8–4.2 mm, lobes 1–2.2 mm; corolla whitish or yellowish, sometimes faintly lilac. |
8.5–12.2 mm; calyx 4.2–7(–8.4) mm, tube 2.7–4.2(–5.3) mm, lobes 1.5–3.2 mm; corolla whitish or faintly lavender. |
Legumes | green, usually mottled, becoming stramineous or brownish, obliquely ovoid-acuminate to lanceoloid-acuminate, strongly to scarcely inflated, 10–23 × (3–)4.5–10 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, opaque or nearly so, usually thinly strigulose, rarely puberulent; beak 4–9 mm, unilocular. |
green, usually mottled, becoming stramineous, broadly ovoid-acuminate, usually strongly inflated, 8–20(–25) × 4.5–12(–15) mm, stiffly papery, ± opaque, glabrous; beak 3–10 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (15 or)16–21. |
(7–)16–25. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. lentiginosus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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Phenology | Flowering May–early Jul. | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Often on volcanic soils, on basalt, with sagebrush and bunchgrass, in ponderosa pine and western juniper communities. | Rocky crests, meadows, brushy hillsides, limber pine woodlands, mostly on limestone or limey clay soils, with sagebrush, to timberline. |
Elevation | 200–1500 m. (700–4900 ft.) | 2100–3400 m. (6900–11200 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; NV; OR; WA; BC |
NV; UT |
Discussion | Variety lentiginosus is widespread in the northern part of its range and is partially sympatric with vars. platyphyllidius and salinus in the southern part of its range. It is transitional to both. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety scorpionis resembles forms of var. lentiginosus that have thin-walled, well-inflated fruits but is disjunct from that northern, lower elevation variety. Variety scorpionis is seemingly the only member of its species present in several Nevada ranges (Deep Creek, Diamond, Grant, Ruby, and White Pine). It is contiguous to two usually purple-flowered montane varieties, vars. latus and toyabensis (D. Isely 1998). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. lentiginosus var. carinatus | |
Name authority | unknown | M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) |
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