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Photo is of parent taxon

scorpion milkvetch

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

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
from FNA
NV; UT
[BONAP county map]
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 Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Diphysi > Astragalus lentiginosus
Sibling taxa
A. lentiginosus var. albifolius, A. lentiginosus var. ambiguus, A. lentiginosus var. antonius, A. lentiginosus var. australis, A. lentiginosus var. chartaceus, A. lentiginosus var. coachellae, A. lentiginosus var. coulteri, A. lentiginosus var. diphysus, A. lentiginosus var. floribundus, A. lentiginosus var. fremontii, A. lentiginosus var. higginsii, A. lentiginosus var. idriensis, A. lentiginosus var. ineptus, A. lentiginosus var. kennedyi, A. lentiginosus var. kernensis, A. lentiginosus var. latus, A. lentiginosus var. lentiginosus, A. lentiginosus var. macrolobus, A. lentiginosus var. maricopae, A. lentiginosus var. micans, A. lentiginosus var. mokiacensis, A. lentiginosus var. multiracemosus, A. lentiginosus var. negundo, A. lentiginosus var. nigricalycis, A. lentiginosus var. oropedii, A. lentiginosus var. palans, A. lentiginosus var. piscinensis, A. lentiginosus var. platyphyllidius, A. lentiginosus var. pohlii, A. lentiginosus var. salinus, A. lentiginosus var. semotus, A. lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis, A. lentiginosus var. sierrae, A. lentiginosus var. stramineus, A. lentiginosus var. toyabensis, A. lentiginosus var. trumbullensis, A. lentiginosus var. variabilis, A. lentiginosus var. vitreus, A. lentiginosus var. wahweapensis, A. lentiginosus var. wilsonii, A. lentiginosus var. yuccanus
Name authority M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923)
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