Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. stramineus |
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soda springs milkvetch, Sodaville milk vetch |
freckled milkvetch, straw milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, to 70–80 cm. | Plants perennial (short-lived), 12–40(–65) cm, herbage cinereous or green. |
Stems | prostrate. |
ashy canescent or green. |
Leaves | 2–5 cm; leaflets 9–15(or 17), blades oblanceolate, 6–18 mm, terminal leaflet 7–15 mm, apex obtuse or subacute. |
(2.5–)4–11(–13) cm; leaflets (9 or)11–15, blades broadly oblanceolate or obovate-cuneate, (3–)5–18 mm, apex openly notched. |
Racemes | shortly and loosely 6–12-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1–2 cm in fruit. |
loosely or remotely 15–25(–30)-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis 5–18 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 1.5–4 cm. |
3.5–9 cm. |
Flowers | 14–14.5 mm; calyx 7–8 mm, tube 4.8–5.5 mm, lobes 2.2–2.5 mm; corolla purple. |
11–12 mm; calyx 5–6.6 mm, tube 3.8–4.5 mm, lobes 1.2–2.1 mm; corolla pale purple. |
Legumes | mottled, ovoid or broadly lanceoloid, moderately inflated, 16–26 × 9–12 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, strigulose; beak incurved, 4–8 mm, unilocular. |
greenish, usually mottled, becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid-acuminate, bladdery-inflated, (10–)17–26 × 10–16 mm, bilocular, somewhat stiffly papery, opaque, strigulose; beak (2–)3–7 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 12–20. |
20–26. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. stramineus |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | Flowering Apr–May. |
Habitat | Saline, seasonally moist clay flats, around seeps and springs. | Mixed warm-desert shrub communities. |
Elevation | 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.) | 900–1000 m. (3000–3300 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
AZ; NV; 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 stramineus is the only member of the species with moderate-sized, pale purple flowers known to occur in Washington County in Utah, and adjacent Arizona and Nevada; it is similar to the slightly smaller-flowered var. fremontii and to var. ambiguus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium sesquimetrale | Cystium stramineum |
Name authority | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 116. (1945) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 122. (1945) |
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