Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. palans |
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freckled milkvetch, shining freckled milkvetch, shining milk vetch |
freckled milkvetch, straggling 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 (sometimes short-lived), (10–)15–35(–40) cm, herbage green or subglabrescent. |
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. |
(3.5–)5–11cm; leaflets 13–21(or 23), blades broadly obovate-cuneate, oblong-elliptic, oblong-oblanceolate, or suborbiculate-obcordate, (3–)5–17(–23) mm, apex obtuse, emarginate, or subacute, adaxial surface glabrous. |
Racemes | loosely (12–)20–35-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4.5–10(–15) cm in fruit. |
loosely (6–)10–28-flowered; axis elongating or not, (1–)2–12(–14.5) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4.5–9 cm. |
(3.5–)5–11 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. |
13.5–17.5(–18.3) mm; calyx 6.3–9.4 mm, tube 4.7–6.8 mm, lobes (0.9–)1.1–3(–4) 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. |
spreading, declined, or spreading-ascending, green becoming stramineous then blackish, ± straight to uniformly or hamately incurved, obliquely linear-lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid-acuminate, not or scarcely inflated, dehiscent on ground, (12–)15–27 × 4–8.5 mm, ± bilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, glabrous or strigulose; beak 5–8 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 23–28. |
20–42. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. palans |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Forming large clumps over low slopes of mobile dunes. | Salt-desert shrub, blackbrush, juniper, pinyon-juniper, and mixed desert shrub communities. |
Elevation | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) | 1100–1900 m. (3600–6200 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
AZ; CO; UT |
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 palans is known from northern Arizona, excluding the Coconino Plateau and upper Verde Valley, and from southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. There is no substantial difference between material included within the concept of var. palans and Astragalus bryantii, which R. C. Barneby (1964) included within sect. Leptocarpi. S. L. Welsh (2007) considered it significant that fallen fruits, characteristic of var. palans, are included with the type collection of A. bryantii. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. palans, A. bryantii | |
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 8: 22. (1956) | (M. E. Jones) M. E. Jones: Contr. W. Bot. 8: 4. (1898) |
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