Astragalus lentiginosus var. pohlii |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. australis |
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pohil's milkvetch, pohl's milkvetch |
freckled milkvetch, southern freckled milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 7–20 cm. | Plants perennial (short-lived), clump-forming, 25–40(–60) cm. |
Stems | decumbent and ascending. |
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Leaves | (4–)5–9 cm; leaflets 11–17, blades broadly obovate-cuneate or suborbiculate, 4–11 mm, apex obtuse or retuse to emarginate. |
(5–)6–17 cm; leaflets (13 or)15–21(or 23), blades usually obovate, broadly elliptic, or rhombic-ovate, rarely suborbiculate, (4–)6–25 mm, apex emarginate or retuse. |
Racemes | shortly and loosely 3–9-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1–3.5 cm in fruit. |
loosely (10–)15–33-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4–12 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1–4 cm. |
3–7(–9) cm. |
Flowers | 20–23 mm; calyx 8.5–10.5 mm, tube 8–10 mm, lobes 2.4–3 mm; corolla whitish tinged with violet. |
(13.2–)14.5–18 mm; calyx (5.3–)6.4–10.8 mm, tube (4.5–)4.8–7 mm, lobes (0.8–)1.6–3.8 mm; corolla pink-purple, sometimes pale. |
Legumes | pale green or purple-speckled becoming stramineous or brownish, plumply ovoid, strongly inflated, 23–33 × 10–15 mm, ± bilocular, leathery or stiffly papery, minutely strigulose; beak 5–15 mm, unilocular; stipe 0.5–1.5 mm. |
green or faintly mottled becoming stramineous or purplish, narrowly to broadly ovoid-acuminate or broadly lanceoloid-acuminate, slightly or greatly inflated, 12–22 × (4–)5–13(–15) mm, bilocular, thinly papery, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely pubescent; beak 4–8 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 24–32. |
18–22. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. pohlii |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. australis |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | Flowering Feb–May. |
Habitat | Greasewood, shadscale, horsebrush, and big sagebrush communities, vegetated sand dunes. | Open desert, sandy playas and outwash fans, plains, washes in foothills of desert mountains, with Larrea, Carnegiea gigantea, in yucca-grasslands. |
Elevation | 1300–1700 m. (4300–5600 ft.) | 600–1300 m. (2000–4300 ft.) |
Distribution |
UT |
AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora) |
Discussion | Variety pohlii is restricted to the Rush and Skull valleys in Tooele County. The shortly stipitate fruit is unusual among varieties of Astragalus lentiginosus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety australis is common and abundant in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, grading into var. yuccanus to the north in Arizona. Eastward it extends to far western trans-Pecos Texas and becomes similar to var. diphysus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | S. L. Welsh & Barneby: Iselya 2: 1. (1981) | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 117, plate 3, figs. 15–19. (1945) |
Web links |