Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
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harney milkvetch, sagebrush milk vetch, salty freckled milkvetch, salty loco milkvetch |
freckled milkvetch, glass freckled milkvetch |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. | Plants perennial, 15–40 cm. |
Stems | ascending to erect, mostly unbranched. |
glabrous or glabrate. |
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. |
4.5–10 cm; leaflets (7–)13–19, blades obovate-cuneate or oblong-obovate, (5–)7–17(–21) mm, apex obtuse or truncate-emarginate. |
Racemes | 10–25-flowered, floriferous from middle to distalmost nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–9) cm in fruit. |
loosely (10–)15–27-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis 4–8.5 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 2–4.5(–5) cm. |
4–9.5 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. |
13.2–17 mm; calyx 6.5–8 mm, tube 4.6–5.7 mm, lobes (1.5–)1.7–2.3 mm; corolla pink-purple or lavender with white wing 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. |
pale green and unmottled turning pallid, usually broadly ovoid, rarely lunately lanceoloid-acuminate, usually strongly inflated, rarely less so, 15–25 × (7–)9–15 mm, papery-membranous, subtranslucent, lustrous, glabrous; beak triangular, short, unilocular. |
Seeds | (7–)16–25. |
21–31. |
2n | = 22. |
= 22. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. salinus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
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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. | Gullied badlands and desert flats, on sand or clay derived from sandstone or limestone, on volcanic gravel. |
Elevation | 700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.) | 800–1500(–2000) m. (2600–4900(–6600) ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WY; BC |
AZ; UT |
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 vitreus is found in the valleys of the upper Virgin River and Kanab Creek, southward to the northern slope of the Kaibab Plateau, and Toroweap and House Rock valleys in eastern Washington and western Kane counties in Utah, and northern Mohave and northwestern Coconino counties in Arizona. (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) | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 119, plate 3, figs. 30–33. (1945) |
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