Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. macrolobus |
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freckled milkvetch, shining freckled milkvetch, shining milk vetch |
west Humboldt 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 (rarely flowering first year), 6–30 cm. |
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. |
4–11 cm; leaflets (9–)13–19, blades obovate or oblanceolate, 4–20 mm, apex mostly retuse, surfaces strigulose-villosulous, some hairs spreading or sinuous. |
Racemes | loosely (12–)20–35-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4.5–10(–15) cm in fruit. |
(8–)12–30-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (2–)3–7(–9) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4.5–9 cm. |
2.5–7 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. |
9.3–11.3 mm; calyx (4.5–)5–7.1 mm, tube 3–3.8 mm, lobes (1.5–)2–3.3 mm; corolla usually whitish, sometimes purple or 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, faintly mottled, or stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, 15–25 × (6–)8–14 mm, thinly papery, translucent, glabrous or strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 23–28. |
18–26. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. macrolobus |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jul. |
Habitat | Forming large clumps over low slopes of mobile dunes. | On sand, with sagebrush. |
Elevation | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) | 1100–1800 m. (3600–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
NV |
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.) |
Specimens of var. macrolobus, apparently flowering the first year, have been misidentified as Astragalus geyeri, which is clearly annual and has straight, appressed (not villosulous) indumentum. Variety macrolobus occurs in northern Nevada. To the north and east, it grades into var. salinus and to the west into var. floribundus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium macrolobum | |
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 8: 22. (1956) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 89. (1945) |
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