Astragalus lentiginosus var. yuccanus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
|
---|---|---|
yucca freckled milkvetch, yucca milkvetch |
soda springs milkvetch, Sodaville milk vetch |
|
Habit | Plants winter-annual or short-lived perennial, clump-forming, 15–60(–100) cm. | Plants perennial, to 70–80 cm. |
Stems | erect and ascending. |
prostrate. |
Leaves | (5–)7–16 cm; leaflets 13–21(–25), blades broadly elliptic, oval, rhombic-obovate, or obovate, (4–)6–21 mm, apex retuse or emarginate. |
2–5 cm; leaflets 9–15(or 17), blades oblanceolate, 6–18 mm, terminal leaflet 7–15 mm, apex obtuse or subacute. |
Racemes | loosely (12–)15–32-flowered, lax and open in fruit; axis early elongating, (4.5–)6–14 cm in fruit. |
shortly and loosely 6–12-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis 1–2 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | (3–)5–10 cm. |
1.5–4 cm. |
Flowers | 11–15.6 mm; calyx 6–7.5 mm, tube 4.4–5.7 mm, lobes (1.3–)1.5–2.4 mm; corolla white or ochroleucous, concolorous, sometimes fading pale bluish, petals poorly graduated, banner slightly longer than wings, wings and keel nearly equal length. |
14–14.5 mm; calyx 7–8 mm, tube 4.8–5.5 mm, lobes 2.2–2.5 mm; corolla purple. |
Legumes | stramineous, plumply ovoid-acuminate or subglobose, strongly inflated, 15–25(–32) × 10–18 mm, bilocular, papery-membranous, subtranslucent, usually glabrous, rarely minutely strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. |
mottled, ovoid or broadly lanceoloid, moderately inflated, 16–26 × 9–12 mm, semibilocular, stiffly papery, strigulose; beak incurved, 4–8 mm, unilocular. |
Seeds | 17–26. |
12–20. |
2n | = 22. |
|
Astragalus lentiginosus var. yuccanus |
Astragalus lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis |
|
Phenology | Flowering Feb–May. | Flowering May–Jun. |
Habitat | Open sandy plains, sandy or rocky washes, gulches in foothills of desert mountains, with Larrea and in yucca-grasslands. | Saline, seasonally moist clay flats, around seeps and springs. |
Elevation | 500–1100 m. (1600–3600 ft.) | 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; NV |
CA; NV |
Discussion | Variety yuccanus occurs in west-central Arizona, barely entering Nevada in the southern tip of Clark County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cystium sesquimetrale | |
Name authority | M. E. Jones: Contr. W. Bot. 8: 3. (1898) | (Rydberg) Barneby: Leafl. W. Bot. 4: 116. (1945) |
Web links |