Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. stramineus |
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freckled milkvetch, shining freckled milkvetch, shining milk vetch |
freckled milkvetch, straw 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 (short-lived), 12–40(–65) cm, herbage cinereous or green. |
Stems | ashy canescent or green. |
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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. |
(2.5–)4–11(–13) cm; leaflets (9 or)11–15, blades broadly oblanceolate or obovate-cuneate, (3–)5–18 mm, apex openly notched. |
Racemes | loosely (12–)20–35-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4.5–10(–15) cm in fruit. |
loosely or remotely 15–25(–30)-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis 5–18 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4.5–9 cm. |
3.5–9 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. |
11–12 mm; calyx 5–6.6 mm, tube 3.8–4.5 mm, lobes 1.2–2.1 mm; corolla pale 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. |
greenish, usually mottled, becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid-acuminate, bladdery-inflated, (10–)17–26 × 10–16 mm, bilocular, somewhat stiffly papery, opaque, strigulose; beak (2–)3–7 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 23–28. |
20–26. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. micans |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. stramineus |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Apr–May. |
Habitat | Forming large clumps over low slopes of mobile dunes. | Mixed warm-desert shrub communities. |
Elevation | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
AZ; NV; 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 stramineus is the only member of the species with moderate-sized, pale purple flowers known to occur in Washington County in Utah, and adjacent Arizona and Nevada; it is similar to the slightly smaller-flowered var. fremontii and to var. ambiguus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium stramineum | |
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 8: 22. (1956) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 122. (1945) |
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