Astragalus musiniensis |
Astragalus sect. Argophylli |
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Ferron milkvetch, Ferron's milkvetch |
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Habit | Plants clump-forming, acaulescent, 3–13 cm, strigose to strigulose, hairs basifixed or, incipiently, malpighian; from branched caudex, branches often with thatch of persistent leaf bases. | Herbs perennial (sometimes flowering as annual), usually tuft- or mat-forming, acaulescent, subacaulescent, or caulescent; caudex usually superficial or aerial, sometimes subterranean. |
Stems | reduced to crowns. |
(when present) obsolete, single, few, or several to many. |
Leaves | 1.5–13 cm; stipules 3.5–10 mm, firmly papery; leaflets (1 or)3 or 5, blades elliptic to lanceolate, 5–35(–47) mm, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces strigose. |
odd-pinnate, usually petiolate, rarely short-petiolate or subsessile; leaflets (1 or)3–39(–43). |
Racemes | 1–6-flowered, flowers erect-ascending; axis 0.2–1.4 cm in fruit; bracts 1.6–4 mm; bracteoles 0. |
subcapitate to loosely flowered, flowers erect, ascending, spreading, declined, or nodding, secund, and retrorsely imbricate. |
Peduncles | ascending, 0.5–7 cm. |
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Pedicels | 1.2–4 mm. |
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Flowers | (18.5–)20–28 mm; calyx cylindric, 12–16 mm, strigose-pilose, tube 9.5–13.5 mm, lobes subulate, 1.5–4 mm; corolla pink-purple; banner recurved through 40°; keel (18–)19–22.7 mm. |
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Corollas | purple, pink-purple, magenta-purple, violet, bluish, lilac, scarlet, ochroleucous, greenish white, or white, banner barely recurved (A. phoenix) or recurved through 20–50° (90–100° in A. accumbens), keel apex obtuse. |
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Calyx | tubes cylindric or deeply campanulate. |
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Legumes | ascending to spreading (humistrate), green or purplish, incurved, obliquely ovoid, dorsiventrally compressed, 15–36 × 8–17 mm, unilocular, thickly succulent becoming alveolate-spongy, spongy-thickened cellular tissue 1.5–2 mm thick, hirsutulous to villous-hirsute, hairs spreading, 0.6–2 mm. |
usually deciduous, usually sessile, rarely subsessile or substipitate, gynophore sometimes present, usually ascending (humistrate), less often spreading or pendulous, subglobose to ellipsoid, narrowly lanceoloid, ovoid or oblong-ellipsoid, or lanceoloid-ovoid, straight or usually incurved, usually compressed dorsiventrally, sometimes obcompressed, 3-sided, turgid, or inflated, unilocular, subunilocular, or bilocular. |
Seeds | 33–53. |
11–70. |
Hairs | basifixed or malpighian. |
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Stipules | distinct (except anomalous forms of A. missouriensis, A. tephrodes, and A. zionis). |
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Astragalus musiniensis |
Astragalus sect. Argophylli |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jun. | |
Habitat | Salt desert shrub, mixed desert shrub, and pinyon-juniper communities. | |
Elevation | 1400–2400 m. (4600–7900 ft.) | |
Distribution |
CO; UT
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w North America; n Mexico |
Discussion | Astragalus musiniensis is restricted to Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Kane, Sevier, and Wayne counties in central and south-central Utah, extending eastward to Garfield and Mesa counties in west-central Colorado. The pithy texture of the ripe fruit of Astragalus musiniensis is similar to that of A. chamaeleuce, but that species has malpighian hairs and more numerous leaflets. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 44 (44 in the flora). Section Argophylli comprises ten subsections, widespread in western North America from southern British Columbia and Saskatchewan southward to northern Baja California, northern Sonora, and western Texas. The subsections are: subsect. Argophylli (A. Gray) M. E. Jones (Astragalus argophyllus, A. callithrix, A. columbianus, A. cyaneus, A. desereticus, A. eurylobus, A. henrimontanensis, A. iodopetalus, A. piutensis, A. shortianus, A. tephrodes, A. tidestromii, A. uncialis, A. zionis); subsect. Pseudargophylli Barneby (A. feensis, A. waterfallii); subsect. Neomexicani Barneby (A. neomexicanus); subsect. Newberryani M. E. Jones (A. eurekensis, A. loanus, A. musiniensis, A. newberryi, A. phoenix, A. welshii); subsect. Concordi S. L. Welsh (A. concordius); subsect. Coccinei M. E. Jones (A. coccineus); subsect. Eriocarpi (A. Gray) Barneby (A. anserinus, A. funereus, A. inflexus, A. leucolobus, A. nudisiliquus, A. purshii, A. subvestitus, A. utahensis); subsect. Parryani Barneby (A. parryi); subsect. Missourienses M. E. Jones (A. accumbens, A. amphioxys, A. castaneiformis, A. chamaeleuce, A. consobrinus, A. cymboides, A. laccoliticus, A. missouriensis, A. piscator); and subsect. Anisi Barneby (A. anisus). (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 | Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | M. E. Jones: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, 5: 671. (1895) | A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 209. (1864) |
Web links |