Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. palans |
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soda springs milkvetch, Sodaville milk vetch |
freckled milkvetch, straggling milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, to 70–80 cm. | Plants perennial (sometimes short-lived), (10–)15–35(–40) cm, herbage green or subglabrescent. |
Stems | prostrate. |
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Leaves | 2–5 cm; leaflets 9–15(or 17), blades oblanceolate, 6–18 mm, terminal leaflet 7–15 mm, apex obtuse or subacute. |
(3.5–)5–11cm; leaflets 13–21(or 23), blades broadly obovate-cuneate, oblong-elliptic, oblong-oblanceolate, or suborbiculate-obcordate, (3–)5–17(–23) mm, apex obtuse, emarginate, or subacute, adaxial surface glabrous. |
Racemes | shortly and loosely 6–12-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1–2 cm in fruit. |
loosely (6–)10–28-flowered; axis elongating or not, (1–)2–12(–14.5) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1.5–4 cm. |
(3.5–)5–11 cm. |
Flowers | 14–14.5 mm; calyx 7–8 mm, tube 4.8–5.5 mm, lobes 2.2–2.5 mm; corolla purple. |
13.5–17.5(–18.3) mm; calyx 6.3–9.4 mm, tube 4.7–6.8 mm, lobes (0.9–)1.1–3(–4) mm; corolla pink-purple. |
Legumes | mottled, ovoid or broadly lanceoloid, moderately inflated, 16–26 × 9–12 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, strigulose; beak incurved, 4–8 mm, unilocular. |
spreading, declined, or spreading-ascending, green becoming stramineous then blackish, ± straight to uniformly or hamately incurved, obliquely linear-lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid-acuminate, not or scarcely inflated, dehiscent on ground, (12–)15–27 × 4–8.5 mm, ± bilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, glabrous or strigulose; beak 5–8 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 12–20. |
20–42. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. palans |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | Saline, seasonally moist clay flats, around seeps and springs. | Salt-desert shrub, blackbrush, juniper, pinyon-juniper, and mixed desert shrub communities. |
Elevation | 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.) | 1100–1900 m. (3600–6200 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
AZ; CO; UT |
Discussion | The branches of var. sesquimetralis radiate, forming large, round plants that hug the ground. This habit, coupled with a long season of available water, is evidently conducive to long-continuing flowering and fruiting but is not necessarily an indication of a near relationship to other taxa that are similar (see discussion under 285c. var. multiracemosus). The variety is restricted to southern Mineral County, Nevada, and northern Inyo County, California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety palans is known from northern Arizona, excluding the Coconino Plateau and upper Verde Valley, and from southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. There is no substantial difference between material included within the concept of var. palans and Astragalus bryantii, which R. C. Barneby (1964) included within sect. Leptocarpi. S. L. Welsh (2007) considered it significant that fallen fruits, characteristic of var. palans, are included with the type collection of A. bryantii. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium sesquimetrale | A. palans, A. bryantii |
Name authority | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 116. (1945) | (M. E. Jones) M. E. Jones: Contr. W. Bot. 8: 4. (1898) |
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