Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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scorpion milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 5–30 cm. |
Leaves | 3–10 cm; leaflets 13–19, blades oval, obovate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 5–15 mm, apex subacute, truncate, or retuse. |
Racemes | 8–18-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–5) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1.5–6(–8) cm. |
Flowers | 8.5–12.2 mm; calyx 4.2–7(–8.4) mm, tube 2.7–4.2(–5.3) mm, lobes 1.5–3.2 mm; corolla whitish or faintly lavender. |
Legumes | green, usually mottled, becoming stramineous, broadly ovoid-acuminate, usually strongly inflated, 8–20(–25) × 4.5–12(–15) mm, stiffly papery, ± opaque, glabrous; beak 3–10 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | (7–)16–25. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Rocky crests, meadows, brushy hillsides, limber pine woodlands, mostly on limestone or limey clay soils, with sagebrush, to timberline. |
Elevation | 2100–3400 m. (6900–11200 ft.) |
Distribution |
NV; UT |
Discussion | Variety scorpionis resembles forms of var. lentiginosus that have thin-walled, well-inflated fruits but is disjunct from that northern, lower elevation variety. Variety scorpionis is seemingly the only member of its species present in several Nevada ranges (Deep Creek, Diamond, Grant, Ruby, and White Pine). It is contiguous to two usually purple-flowered montane varieties, vars. latus and toyabensis (D. Isely 1998). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) |
Web links |