Astragalus lentiginosus var. variabilis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. macrolobus |
|
---|---|---|
freckled milk vetch, victorville freckled milkvetch |
west Humboldt milkvetch |
|
Habit | Plants usually short-lived perennial, sometimes annual, (4–)10–40 cm, herbage usually cinereous, sometimes green or silky-canescent. | Plants perennial (rarely flowering first year), 6–30 cm. |
Stems | diffuse and ascending; ashy canescent or green. |
|
Leaves | (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. |
4–11 cm; leaflets (9–)13–19, blades obovate or oblanceolate, 4–20 mm, apex mostly retuse, surfaces strigulose-villosulous, some hairs spreading or sinuous. |
Racemes | loosely (10–)12–25-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3–)4–15(–17) cm in fruit. |
(8–)12–30-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (2–)3–7(–9) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 3–8(–9) cm. |
2.5–7 cm. |
Flowers | 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. |
9.3–11.3 mm; calyx (4.5–)5–7.1 mm, tube 3–3.8 mm, lobes (1.5–)2–3.3 mm; corolla usually whitish, sometimes purple or pink-purple. |
Legumes | 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. |
green, faintly mottled, or stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, 15–25 × (6–)8–14 mm, thinly papery, translucent, glabrous or strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 23–29. |
18–26. |
2n | = 22. |
|
Astragalus lentiginosus var. variabilis |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. macrolobus |
|
Phenology | Flowering (Feb–)Mar–Jun. | Flowering Apr–Jul. |
Habitat | Sandy flats, washes, desert playas, sometimes on dunes, usually with Larrea. | On sand, with sagebrush. |
Elevation | 100–1000(–2100) m. (300–3300(–6900) ft.) | 1100–1800 m. (3600–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; NV |
NV |
Discussion | 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.) |
Specimens of var. macrolobus, apparently flowering the first year, have been misidentified as Astragalus geyeri, which is clearly annual and has straight, appressed (not villosulous) indumentum. Variety macrolobus occurs in northern Nevada. To the north and east, it grades into var. salinus and to the west into var. floribundus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium macrolobum | |
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 123, plate 4, figs. 1–8. (1945) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 89. (1945) |
Web links |