Astragalus lentiginosus var. trumbullensis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. higginsii |
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freckled milkvetch, Mount Trumbull milkvetch |
Higgins' freckled milkvetch, Higgins' milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 30–45(–65) cm, herbage green or subglabrescent. | Plants perennial, 15–25 cm. |
Leaves | 2–9.5(–10.5) cm; leaflets (7–)13–17, blades broadly obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, 5–15 mm, apex retuse to round or subacute, adaxial surface usually strigose to strigulose, sometimes glabrate or glabrous. |
3–11 cm; leaflets 15–21, blades lanceolate-elliptic to obovate, 8–18 mm, apex emarginate. |
Racemes | loosely 4–15(–17)-flowered; axis elongating, 3–9.5 cm in fruit. |
7–17-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1–4 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4.5–7.5 cm. |
3–6.5 cm. |
Flowers | 13–17 mm; calyx 6.3–7.4 mm, tube 4.8–5.5 mm, lobes 1.7–2 mm; corolla pink- or red-purple, sometimes with pale or white wing tips. |
17–20 mm; calyx 7–10.4 mm, tube 6–6.8 mm, lobes 3–3.5 mm; corolla pale violet. |
Legumes | evidently persistent, stramineous or mottled, linear-oblong to oblong or narrowly ellipsoid, not or scarcely inflated, 17–32 × 4–5.5(–7.5) mm, ± bilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, strigulose; beak 3–5 mm, unilocular; stipe 0.1–1 mm. |
green, sometimes mottled, becoming stramineous, ovoid, greatly inflated, 19–27 × 11–16(–19) mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, thinly translucent, glabrous. |
Seeds | 14–28. |
30–35. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. trumbullensis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. higginsii |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr (Sep). | Flowering Apr–early Jun. |
Habitat | Sandstone outcrops and gravel, with Agave, Ephedra, Mortonia, Purshia, and other warm-desert shrubs. | Sandy to loamy soils, with Ptelea-Rhus-Prosopis, and yucca, oak, mesquite communities. |
Elevation | 900–1800 m. (3000–5900 ft.) | 800–1100 m. (2600–3600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ |
NM; TX |
Discussion | Variety trumbullensis is restricted to Mohave County. It is closely related to vars. mokiacensis and palans, weakly differentiated by a series of features that intergrade insensibly but taken in combination are more or less diagnostic (as is true for most members of the lentiginosus complex). J. A. Alexander (2005) provided statistical evidence that this variety is indistinguishable from var. mokiacensis (as Astragalus mokiacensis), and he considered the two synonymous. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety higginsii, from Chaves County in New Mexico, and Hudspeth, Hutchinson, and Potter counties in Texas, almost certainly is a derivative of var. diphysus, differing only in its pale flowers. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | S. L. Welsh & N. D. Atwood: Rhodora 103: 81, fig. 3. (2001) | S. L. Welsh & K. H. Thorne: Brittonia 33: 296, fig. 2. (1981) |
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