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archuleta milkvetch, Missouri milkvetch

Photo is of parent taxon

Missouri milk-vetch

Habit Plants caulescent. Plants usually shortly caulescent, sometimes subacaulescent.
Stems

10–15(–20) cm.

to 15 cm.

Racemes

9–12-flowered.

(3–)5–15-flowered.

Flowers

calyx 7.8–10 mm, tube 6–10 mm, lobes 1.5–3 mm;

corolla lavender, purple, or almost white, wing tips often white;

banner (17–)19–20.5 mm.

calyx 9–12(–14.3) mm, tube 6.3–9(–9.3) mm, lobes 1.4–4.5(–5.3) mm;

corolla usually pink-purple, rarely white;

banner (14.5–)16–22(–24) mm;

keel (11.5–)12.8–17.3(–18.5) mm.

Legumes

ascending to descending, dorsiventrally compressed, lunately incurved, oblong-ellipsoid, (12–)17–20 × 6–9 mm, unilocular, apex obcompressed proximal to incurved beak, glabrous or sparsely strigulose.

ascending, initially subterete or ± dorsiventrally compressed, ± straight, subsymmetrically oblong-ellipsoid, ± laterally compressed and obtuse-angled when mature, 15–28(–30) × (4–)5–9(–10) mm, subunilocular, base obtuse or sometimes cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into subulate, pungent beak, sutures prominent, strigulose.

Seeds

33–40.

(33–)40–50(–56).

2n

= 22.

Astragalus missouriensis var. humistratus

Astragalus missouriensis var. missouriensis

Phenology Flowering May–Jul. Flowering late Mar–Jul.
Habitat Oak brush with scattered pon­derosa pine on clay knolls, pinyon-juniper woodlands, associated with Lewis and Mancos formations. Prairies, valleys, hillsides, dry open places, on limestone, shale, sandstone, or gyp­sum substrates.
Elevation 2100–2500 m. (6900–8200 ft.) 300–2400 m. (1000–7900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; NM
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CO; IA; KS; MN; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY; AB; MB; SK
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Variety humistratus is locally distributed in Archuleta, Hinsdale, and La Plata counties, Colorado, and adjacent Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. It is anomalous in its strongly caulescent but mat-forming habit, and the slightly or plainly connate stipules. R. C. Barneby (1964) suggested a hybrid origin between Astragalus missouriensis and A. humistratus.

Variety humistratus is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

There is an irregular cline in flower size of var. missouriensis, from smallest in the north to largest in the south; caulescent forms appear to be more common southward (D. Isely 1998).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Argophylli > Astragalus missouriensis Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Argophylli > Astragalus missouriensis
Sibling taxa
A. missouriensis var. amphibolus, A. missouriensis var. mimetes, A. missouriensis var. missouriensis
A. missouriensis var. amphibolus, A. missouriensis var. humistratus, A. missouriensis var. mimetes
Name authority Isely: Syst. Bot. 8: 423. (1983) unknown
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