Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. floribundus |
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harney milkvetch, sagebrush milk vetch, salty freckled milkvetch, salty loco milkvetch |
Carson city milkvetch, floriferous freckled milkvetch, floriferous milk vetch, freckled milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. | Plants perennial, 20–50 cm. |
Stems | ascending to erect, mostly unbranched. |
prostrate to weakly ascending, branched proximally. |
Leaves | 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. |
3–8(–11) cm; leaflets 11–15(–19), blades obovate or oblanceolate, 5–15 mm, apex retuse, surfaces glabrate to densely strigulose, hairs appressed or subappressed. |
Racemes | 10–25-flowered, floriferous from middle to distalmost nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–9) cm in fruit. |
(11–)15–30(–37)-flowered, short and dense, cylindric or globose in fruit; axis 1–4(–7) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 2–4.5(–5) cm. |
1–4(–7) cm. |
Flowers | 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. |
8.8–11 mm; calyx 4–6.5 mm, tube 3–4 mm, lobes 0.6–1.4(–2) mm; corolla whitish, sometimes wings and keel with lavender tips. |
Legumes | 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. |
faintly mottled becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, (8–)12–21 × (6–)7–12 mm, thinly papery, translucent, glabrous or strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (7–)16–25. |
15–21(–25). |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. floribundus |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Saline flats and playas upward to mountain slopes in sagebrush, oak, and other montane communities. | Sagebrush communities, on sandy, granitic, or basaltic substrates. |
Elevation | 700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.) | 1100–1600(–2100) m. (3600–5200(–6900) ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WY; BC |
CA; NV; OR |
Discussion | 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.) |
Variety floribundus is the only member of Astragalus lentiginosus in the Lake Tahoe area; it occurs along the eastern flanks of the Sierra Nevada, passing into var. ineptus in Mono County, and extends northward into southeastern Oregon, where it grades into var. salinus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. salinus | |
Name authority | (Howell) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 86. (1945) | A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 524. (1865) |
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