Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. diphysus |
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freckled milkvetch, shining freckled milkvetch, shining milk vetch |
double-bladder freckled milkvetch, freckled milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, clump-forming, 20–40 cm, herbage silvery- or white-silky, hairs 1.1–2 mm. | Plants perennial, (10–)15–35(–40) cm. |
Stems | usually ascending, rarely prostrate. |
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Leaves | 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. |
3–10(–14) cm; leaflets (11–)15–21(or 23), blades oblong-oblanceolate, obovate, rhombic-obovate, elliptic, or ovate-cuneate, 4–20 mm, apex truncate-emarginate. |
Racemes | loosely (12–)20–35-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4.5–10(–15) cm in fruit. |
± densely becoming shortly (9–)12–24-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis not or little elongating, 1–4(–6) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4.5–9 cm. |
(1.5–)2.5–8.5 cm. |
Flowers | 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. |
(12.6–)14.5–19 mm; calyx 7–10.4 mm, tube (5.1–)5.5–8 mm, lobes 1.5–3.2 mm; corolla pink-purple. |
Legumes | green, unmottled, obliquely ovoid, inflated, 15–20 × 8–10 mm, bilocular, stiffly papery, densely silky-villous-tomentulose; beak 2.5–4 mm, unilocular. |
green, purple- or red-tinged, or brightly mottled, slightly incurved, mostly plumply ovoid or subglobose, (10–)14–27(–30) × (6.5–)8–18 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery or leathery, glabrous; beak well-defined, triangular or deltoid, (3–)4–10 mm, unilocular or bilocular. |
Seeds | 23–28. |
28–35. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. diphysus |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Mar–Jun(–Aug). |
Habitat | Forming large clumps over low slopes of mobile dunes. | Yucca-grasslands, pinyon-juniper forests, other xeric communities. |
Elevation | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) | 1400–2300 m. (4600–7500 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
AZ; CO; NM |
Discussion | 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.) |
Variety diphysus is widespread, ranging across the northern parts of Arizona and New Mexico, extending northward into western Colorado. D. Isely (1998) recognized var. macdougalii, here considered a form with diminutive fruits, from the San Francisco Peaks area of Arizona. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. diphysus, A. lentiginosus var. albiflorus, A. lentiginosus var. macdougalii | |
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 8: 22. (1956) | (A. Gray) M. E. Jones: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, 5: 673. (1895) |
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