Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. idriensis |
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harney milkvetch, sagebrush milk vetch, salty freckled milkvetch, salty loco milkvetch |
freckled milkvetch, New Idria milk vetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. | Plants perennial, (10–)15–40 cm. |
Stems | ascending to erect, mostly unbranched. |
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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. |
(2–)3–11 cm; leaflets (7–)17–27(or 29), blades oval-obovate, obovate-cuneate, or broadly oblanceolate, (2–)3–15(–18) mm, apex truncate or emarginate. |
Racemes | 10–25-flowered, floriferous from middle to distalmost nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–9) cm in fruit. |
7–20-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (0.5–)1–4 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 2–4.5(–5) cm. |
(1.5–)3–6 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. |
(12–)14–19(–20) mm; calyx (5–)6.2–11 mm, tube (4.2–)4.7–7.2 mm, lobes (0.5–)1.3–3.4 mm; corolla brilliant or pale pink-purple. |
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. |
green, usually red-mottled, obliquely ovoid or lunately semi-ovoid, greatly or slightly inflated, 12–30 × 5-16 mm, semibilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, strigulose, hairs usually white, rarely black; beak 3–10 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (7–)16–25. |
21–30. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. idriensis |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Saline flats and playas upward to mountain slopes in sagebrush, oak, and other montane communities. | Dry, grassy hillsides, canyon floors and benches, on shale or sandstone outcrops, in arid grasslands with blue oak, with foothill pine, among sagebrush. |
Elevation | 700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.) | 300–2100 m. (1000–6900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WY; BC |
CA |
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 idriensis occurs in and around the head of the San Joaquin Valley and in the South Coast ranges, where it is the only form of Astragalus lentiginosus with shortly racemose purple flowers that is native (R. C. Barneby 1964). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | A. salinus | A. idriensis, A. tehachapiensis |
Name authority | (Howell) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 86. (1945) | M. E. Jones: Contr. W. Bot. 10: 63. (1902) |
Web links |