Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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freckled milkvetch, glass freckled milkvetch |
scorpion milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 15–40 cm. | Plants perennial, 5–30 cm. |
Stems | glabrous or glabrate. |
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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. |
3–10 cm; leaflets 13–19, blades oval, obovate, or elliptic-oblanceolate, 5–15 mm, apex subacute, truncate, or retuse. |
Racemes | loosely (10–)15–27-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis 4–8.5 cm in fruit. |
8–18-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–5) cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 4–9.5 cm. |
1.5–6(–8) 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. |
8.5–12.2 mm; calyx 4.2–7(–8.4) mm, tube 2.7–4.2(–5.3) mm, lobes 1.5–3.2 mm; corolla whitish or faintly lavender. |
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, usually mottled, becoming stramineous, broadly ovoid-acuminate, usually strongly inflated, 8–20(–25) × 4.5–12(–15) mm, stiffly papery, ± opaque, glabrous; beak 3–10 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 21–31. |
(7–)16–25. |
2n | = 22. |
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Astragalus lentiginosus var. vitreus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | Flowering Jun–Aug. |
Habitat | Gullied badlands and desert flats, on sand or clay derived from sandstone or limestone, on volcanic gravel. | Rocky crests, meadows, brushy hillsides, limber pine woodlands, mostly on limestone or limey clay soils, with sagebrush, to timberline. |
Elevation | 800–1500(–2000) m. (2600–4900(–6600) ft.) | 2100–3400 m. (6900–11200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; UT |
NV; UT |
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 scorpionis resembles forms of var. lentiginosus that have thin-walled, well-inflated fruits but is disjunct from that northern, lower elevation variety. Variety scorpionis is seemingly the only member of its species present in several Nevada ranges (Deep Creek, Diamond, Grant, Ruby, and White Pine). It is contiguous to two usually purple-flowered montane varieties, vars. latus and toyabensis (D. Isely 1998). (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) | M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 124. (1923) |
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