Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. australis |
|
---|---|---|
freckled milkvetch, glass freckled milkvetch |
freckled milkvetch, southern freckled milkvetch |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, 15–40 cm. | Plants perennial (short-lived), clump-forming, 25–40(–60) cm. |
Stems | glabrous or glabrate. |
decumbent and ascending. |
Leaves | 4.5–10 cm; leaflets (7–)13–19, blades obovate-cuneate or oblong-obovate, (5–)7–17(–21) mm, apex obtuse or truncate-emarginate. |
(5–)6–17 cm; leaflets (13 or)15–21(or 23), blades usually obovate, broadly elliptic, or rhombic-ovate, rarely suborbiculate, (4–)6–25 mm, apex emarginate or retuse. |
Racemes | loosely (10–)15–27-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis 4–8.5 cm in fruit. |
loosely (10–)15–33-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis (3.5–)4–12 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4–9.5 cm. |
3–7(–9) cm. |
Flowers | 13.2–17 mm; calyx 6.5–8 mm, tube 4.6–5.7 mm, lobes (1.5–)1.7–2.3 mm; corolla pink-purple or lavender with white wing tips. |
(13.2–)14.5–18 mm; calyx (5.3–)6.4–10.8 mm, tube (4.5–)4.8–7 mm, lobes (0.8–)1.6–3.8 mm; corolla pink-purple, sometimes pale. |
Legumes | pale green and unmottled turning pallid, usually broadly ovoid, rarely lunately lanceoloid-acuminate, usually strongly inflated, rarely less so, 15–25 × (7–)9–15 mm, papery-membranous, subtranslucent, lustrous, glabrous; beak triangular, short, unilocular. |
green or faintly mottled becoming stramineous or purplish, narrowly to broadly ovoid-acuminate or broadly lanceoloid-acuminate, slightly or greatly inflated, 12–22 × (4–)5–13(–15) mm, bilocular, thinly papery, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely pubescent; beak 4–8 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 21–31. |
18–22. |
2n | = 22. |
= 22. |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. australis |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Feb–May. |
Habitat | Gullied badlands and desert flats, on sand or clay derived from sandstone or limestone, on volcanic gravel. | Open desert, sandy playas and outwash fans, plains, washes in foothills of desert mountains, with Larrea, Carnegiea gigantea, in yucca-grasslands. |
Elevation | 800–1500(–2000) m. (2600–4900(–6600) ft.) | 600–1300 m. (2000–4300 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; UT |
AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora) |
Discussion | Variety vitreus is found in the valleys of the upper Virgin River and Kanab Creek, southward to the northern slope of the Kaibab Plateau, and Toroweap and House Rock valleys in eastern Washington and western Kane counties in Utah, and northern Mohave and northwestern Coconino counties in Arizona. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety australis is common and abundant in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, grading into var. yuccanus to the north in Arizona. Eastward it extends to far western trans-Pecos Texas and becomes similar to var. diphysus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 119, plate 3, figs. 30–33. (1945) | Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 117, plate 3, figs. 15–19. (1945) |
Web links |