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Photo is of parent taxon

Earle's woolly locoweed, woolly locoweed

Photo is of parent taxon

Mogollon woolly locoweed, woolly locoweed

Habit Plants subacaulescent or shortly caulescent. Plants acaulescent, usually dwarf.
Stems

to 10(–16) cm.

reduced to thick crowns, closely invested with stipules.

Leaves

8–32 cm;

stipules 5–15 mm;

leaflets 19–35, blades oblanceolate, rhombic-ovate, or rhombic-obovate, (5–)10–30(–45) mm.

(4–)6–16 cm;

stipules 5–12 mm;

leaflets (9–)13–23, blades broadly elliptic to suborbiculate, 3–13 mm.

Racemes

15–36-flowered;

axis elongating, 4–15 cm in fruit.

densely 12–32-flowered;

axis 1.5–6 cm in fruit.

Peduncles

(5–)8–17 cm.

scapiform, 4–10 cm.

Flowers

calyx (8.5–)8.8–10.5 mm, tube (4.5–)5–7 × 0.8–3(–3.2) mm, lobes 2.4–4 mm;

corolla pink-purple or yellowish tipped and suffused or margined with dull purple;

banner 12–17.5 mm;

keel 9–13 mm.

calyx 10–15.3 mm, tube 6.6–8.5 × 3.2–5 mm, lobes 3.3–6.8 mm;

corolla pink-purple;

banner 16–21.5 mm;

keel 12.5–14.5 mm.

Legumes

± incurved, abruptly contracted distally, obliquely ovoid-ellipsoid or lanceoloid-ellipsoid, 9–14 × 4–6.5(–9) mm, usually sparsely villous-tomentulose or loosely strigulose, rarely glabrate or glabrous, hairs ascending and almost straight, or subappressed and curly, less than 1 mm;

beak bilocular.

± straight to gently incurved, narrowly ovoid or lunately ellipsoid, 9–13 × 4.5–6 mm, densely villous-tomentose, hairs to 1.6–2.6 mm;

beak bilocular.

Seeds

20–30.

19–28.

2n

= 22, 24.

Astragalus mollissimus var. earlei

Astragalus mollissimus var. mogollonicus

Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun. Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat Dry hills and grassy plains, on volcanic and calcareous soils. Stony flats and hilltops, on pebbly, volcanic soils of open ponderosa pine forests, on limestone substrates, rocky knolls in pinyon-juniper belt.
Elevation 1100–1800 m. (3600–5900 ft.) 1800–2300 m. (5900–7500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua)
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Within the flora area, var. earlei is a plant common in the trans-Pecos region of Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

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

D. Isely (1998) viewed var. mogollonicus as a reduced phase of var. bigelovii, but var. mogollonicus is distinguished by its acaulescent growth habit and scapiform peduncles. It occurs from the Kaibab Plateau south of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to the southeast along the Mogollon Escarpment to western New Mexico.

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

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Mollissimi > Astragalus mollissimus Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Mollissimi > Astragalus mollissimus
Sibling taxa
A. mollissimus var. bigelovii, A. mollissimus var. coryi, A. mollissimus var. marcidus, A. mollissimus var. matthewsii, A. mollissimus var. mogollonicus, A. mollissimus var. mollissimus, A. mollissimus var. thompsoniae
A. mollissimus var. bigelovii, A. mollissimus var. coryi, A. mollissimus var. earlei, A. mollissimus var. marcidus, A. mollissimus var. matthewsii, A. mollissimus var. mollissimus, A. mollissimus var. thompsoniae
Synonyms A. earlei A. mogollonicus, A. bigelovii var. mogollonicus
Name authority (Greene ex Rydberg) Tidestrom: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 48: 40. (1935) (Greene) Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 745. (1964)
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