Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. sierrae |
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harney milkvetch, sagebrush milk vetch, salty freckled milkvetch, salty loco milkvetch |
Big Bear Valley milk vetch, San Bernardino Mountains milkvetch, Sierra milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. | Plants perennial, 10–30 cm, herbage green or greenish. |
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. |
2–5 cm; leaflets 15–21, blades obovate or broadly oblanceolate, 3–8 mm, apex obtuse 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. |
(5–)7–15-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 0.5–3 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 2–4.5(–5) cm. |
(0.7–)1–3 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. |
10.4–13(–14.5) mm; calyx 5–6(–6.6) mm, tube 4.3–4.8(–5.2) mm, lobes 0.5–1.4 mm; corolla whitish or with pink tinge. |
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. |
mottled becoming stramineous, plumply ovoid-acuminate or subglobose, bladdery-inflated, 15–22 × 8–15 mm, papery, strigulose; beak erect, triangular, 3–6 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (7–)16–25. |
17–24. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. sierrae |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Aug. |
Habitat | Saline flats and playas upward to mountain slopes in sagebrush, oak, and other montane communities. | Meadows, pine forests. |
Elevation | 700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.) | 1800–2200(–2600) m. (5900–7200(–8500) 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 sierrae is restricted to the eastern margin of the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County, where it is local and common. (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) | M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) |
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