The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links
Photo is of parent taxon

soda springs milkvetch, Sodaville milk vetch

Photo is of parent taxon

freckled milk vetch, victorville freckled milkvetch

Habit Plants perennial, to 70–80 cm. Plants usually short-lived perennial, sometimes annual, (4–)10–40 cm, herbage usually cinereous, sometimes green or silky-canescent.
Stems

prostrate.

diffuse and ascending;

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–)4–13 cm;

leaflets (7–)11–21(–25), blades obovate-cuneate to broadly oblanceolate or rhombic-elliptic, 4–15(–17) mm, apex usually obtuse or emarginate, rarely acute or subacute.

Racemes

shortly and loosely 6–12-flowered, short and compact in fruit;

axis 1–2 cm in fruit.

loosely (10–)12–25-flowered, lax and open in fruit;

axis (3–)4–15(–17) cm in fruit.

Peduncles

1.5–4 cm.

3–8(–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.

11.1–15 mm;

calyx 4.7–6.5 mm, tube 3.7–5.2 mm, lobes 1–1.4(–1.5) mm, adaxial pair usually shortest;

corolla pink- or magenta-purple.

Legumes

mottled, ovoid or broadly lanceoloid, moderately inflated, 16–26 × 9–12 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, strigulose;

beak incurved, 4–8 mm, unilocular.

pale green or mottled becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, bladdery-inflated, (12–)15–27(–30) × 8–14(–15) mm, bilocular, stiffly papery, opaque, sparsely strigulose to densely and canescently strigose-villosulous;

beak (3–)4–9 mm, unilocular.

Seeds

12–20.

23–29.

2n

= 22.

Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis

Astragalus lentiginosus var. variabilis

Phenology Flowering May–Jun. Flowering (Feb–)Mar–Jun.
Habitat Saline, seasonally moist clay flats, around seeps and springs. Sandy flats, washes, desert playas, sometimes on dunes, usually with Larrea.
Elevation 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.) 100–1000(–2100) m. (300–3300(–6900) ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NV
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; NV
[BONAP county map]
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 variabilis is common and locally abundant in the southern and southwestern Mojave Desert, replacing var. fremontii, which is usually found to the north and east. Vestiture varies from ashy white to greenish. To the north in southern Inyo County, California, it intergrades with var. fremontii to the point that differentiation of the varieties is subjective. At low elevations in the central Mojave Desert it grades into var. coachellae. It also occurs on the floor of the upper San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California, where it closely resembles var. nigricalycis except for the purple flowers. White-canescent plants of this variety also occur in Nye County in Nevada, west of Beatty. R. C. Barneby (1964) discussed intergradient populations more thoroughly.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Diphysi > Astragalus lentiginosus 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. scorpionis, A. lentiginosus var. semotus, 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
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. scorpionis, 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. vitreus, A. lentiginosus var. wahweapensis, A. lentiginosus var. wilsonii, A. lentiginosus var. yuccanus
Synonyms Cystium sesquimetrale
Name authority (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 116. (1945) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 123, plate 4, figs. 1–8. (1945)
Web links