Astragalus lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
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broad-leaf freckled milkvetch, broad-leaf milkvetch |
harney milkvetch, sagebrush milk vetch, salty freckled milkvetch, salty loco milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, (7–)10–30(–35) cm. | Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. |
Stems | ascending to erect, mostly unbranched. |
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Leaves | (4–)5–11 cm; leaflets (7–)11–17(or 19), blades usually broadly obovate-cuneate, elliptic, or suborbiculate, rarely rhombic-elliptic, (4–)7–20 mm, apex usually obtuse, retuse, truncate, or apiculate, rarely acute. |
4–10 cm; leaflets (9 or)11–19, blades broadly obovate, obovate-cuneate, obcordate, or oblong to oblanceolate, 5–20 mm, apex usually retuse or emarginate, surfaces glabrate to densely strigulose, hairs appressed or subappressed. |
Racemes | shortly and loosely (5–)7–15-flowered, flowering from near or proximal to middle nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis little elongating, 1–3.5 cm in fruit. |
10–25-flowered, floriferous from middle to distalmost nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–9) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1–5 cm. |
2–4.5(–5) cm. |
Flowers | (12.6–)14–21.4 mm; calyx (8–)8.5–12.5 mm, tube (5–)5.5–8(–9) mm, lobes 2.4–5 mm; corolla usually whitish, rarely purple. |
9.5–11.5 mm; calyx 5–6.4 mm, tube 3.6–4.2(–4.6) mm, lobes 1.2–2.2 mm; corolla whitish, sometimes wings and keel with lavender tips. |
Legumes | variable in length, outline, and curvature, pale green or purple-speckled becoming stramineous or brownish, plumply ovoid or narrowly lanceoloid-ellipsoid, (13–)15–40(–48) × 7–14 mm, ± bilocular, strongly or slightly inflated, ± fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, usually glabrous, sometimes minutely strigulose; beak deltoid or lanceolate-acuminate, 5–15 mm, unilocular. |
green or mottled becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, 14–26(–30) × (6–)7.5–14 mm, papery-membranous, translucent, glabrous or puberulent; beak 3–9 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (21–)24–32(–38). |
(7–)16–25. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jul. | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Arid plains, hillsides, and valley floors, on basalt, with sagebrush. | Saline flats and playas upward to mountain slopes in sagebrush, oak, and other montane communities. |
Elevation | 600–1900(–2100) m. (2000–6200(–6900) ft.) | 700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; NV; OR; UT; WY |
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WY; BC |
Discussion | Variety platyphyllidius is dispersed widely from eastern Oregon and northeastern California, across southern Idaho into western Wyoming, northeastern Nevada, and barely into northern Utah and northwestern Colorado. It is apparently common only locally, distinguished by its typically pale flowers and thick-textured fruits (approximate length of two times width or less). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety salinus, widespread in the northern and eastern portions of the Great Basin, occupies a crucial position in the Astragalus lentiginosus complex, serving to link many superficially disparate lines of differentiation (R. C. Barneby 1964). On the one hand, one can trace a sequence passing through var. floribundus to var. ineptus, and then to vars. antonius, idriensis, and sierrae. On the other hand, another strand leads through vars. lentiginosus and platyphyllidius to vars. chartaceus, diphysus, and finally australis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium platyphyllidium, A. lentiginosus var. cornutus, A. merrillii, C. cornutum, C. merrillii | A. salinus |
Name authority | (Rydberg) M. Peck: Man. Pl. Oregon, 449. (1941) — (as platyphyllidium) | (Howell) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 86. (1945) |
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