Astragalus nuttallianus var. austrinus |
Astragalus nuttallianus var. micranthiformis |
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rio fronteras milkvetch, smallflower milkvetch, southern small flower milk vetch |
Montezuma milkvetch, turkeypeas |
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Habit | Plants strigulose or hirsutulous. | Plants sparsely pilosulous, hairs to 0.7(–0.8) mm. |
Stems | (1–)3–25(–35) cm. |
3–25(–39) cm. |
Leaves | 1–6.5 cm; leaflets 7–11(–17), blades often narrowly elliptic, sometimes broader proximally, apex rounded. |
1.5–4.5(–6.5) cm; leaflets (7 or)9–15(or 17), blades proximally obovate, oblong, or obcordate, distally oblanceolate, elliptic, or linear-oblong, apex proximally retuse or emarginate, distally obtuse to subacute, terminal one sometimes emarginate. |
Racemes | (1–)2–5(–8)-flowered; axis very short in fruit. |
(1–)3–7-flowered; axis (0–)0.5–2 cm in fruit. |
Peduncles | 3–10 cm. |
(1.5–)2.5–5.5(–6.5) cm. |
Flowers | calyx 3.7–5.4 mm, silvery-pilose, tube (1.5–)2–3 mm, lobes 1.8–2.1 mm; corolla white or tipped pink or purple, banner (4–)5.5–7 mm; keel apex triangular-acute or sharply deltate, usually beaklike. |
calyx 3.4–4.7 mm, loosely strigulose, tube 2–2.8 mm, lobes (1.2–)1.5–2.2(–2.5) mm; corolla banner 6.3–7.6(–9.2) mm; keel apex obtusely rounded. |
Legumes | 13–24 × 1.8–2.8(–3) mm, glabrous or strigulose. |
somewhat hamate, (12–)14–20 × 2.1–3.3 mm, glabrous or minutely strigulose. |
Seeds | 14–18. |
13–17. |
2n | = 24. |
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Astragalus nuttallianus var. austrinus |
Astragalus nuttallianus var. micranthiformis |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–May (summer–fall). | Flowering Apr–Jun. |
Habitat | On limestone substrates, in various vegetative types. | Mixed salt-desert and desert shrub, sagebrush, and pinyon-juniper communities. |
Elevation | 600–2200 m. (2000–7200 ft.) | (1000–)1100–1900 m. ((3300–)3600–6200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; KS; NM; OK; TX; Mexico (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Puebla, Sonora) |
AZ; CO; NM; UT |
Discussion | Variety austrinus occurs from southern Kansas to the southern tip of Texas and northern Mexico, and westward to Arizona and southern California, where it grades into var. imperfectus (D. Isely 1998). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
D. Isely (1998) suggested that large-flowered individuals within the range of var. micranthiformis are intermediates with var. austrinus. Ranges of these varieties are discrete, however, and larger-flowered plants may be part of normal variation. Variety micranthiformis occurs in approximately one-fourth of each state around the Four Corners area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Hamosa austrina, A. austrinus | |
Name authority | (Small) Barneby in F. Shreve and I. L. Wiggins: Veg. Fl. Sonoran Desert, 709. (1964) | Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 1064. (1964) |
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