FNA: Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae vs. Astragalus sect. Preussiani

	Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae	Astragalus sect. Preussiani
	Ellis' stinking milkvetch
Habit		Herbs perennial (sometimes flowering as annual), course, selenophytes, clump-forming, caulescent; caudex usually superficial (sometimes subterranean in A. praelongus).
Stems		few or several to many.
Leaves		odd-pinnate, shortly subsessile to petiolate; leaflets (1 or)3–33, jointed (terminal leaflet sometimes decurrent in A. preussii).
Racemes		loosely flowered, sometimes initially densely flowered, flowers ascending to deflexed, declined, or nodding.
Flowers	15–24 mm; calyx lobes subulate or lanceolate-attenuate, 2–5.5 mm; corolla ochroleucous, keel often faintly to definitely maculate.
Corollas		pink to purple, magenta-purple, reddish purple, ochroleucous, white, or yellowish, banner recurved through 30–90°, keel apex round, obtuse, blunt, bluntly triangular, or bluntly rectangular.
Calyx		tubes cylindric, sometimes base oblique or gibbous.
Legumes	ellipsoid, oblong-ellipsoid, or narrowly clavate-ellipsoid, 1.8–34 × (5–)6–10(–11) mm, strigulose, glabrous, or puberulent along sutures; stipe 1–2.5 mm.	persistent, sessile or subsessile to stipitate, erect, spreading, or declined, narrowly ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, oblong-ellipsoid, obovoid, or subglobose, scarcely swollen to strongly inflated, unilocular or subunilocular.
Seeds		20–75(–84).
Stipules	distinct throughout.	usually distinct, rarely connate-sheathing at proximal nodes (in A. praelongus).
Hairs		basifixed.
2n	= 24.

	Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae	Astragalus sect. Preussiani
Phenology	Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat	Clay soils, on Cretaceous Mancos Shale and Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle formations, on alluvial substrates containing selenium, in warm and salt desert shrub and pinyon-juniper communities.
Elevation	1300–2000 m. (4300–6600 ft.)
Distribution	CO; NM; TX; UT [BONAP county map]	sw United States; nw Mexico
Discussion	Variation in var. praelongus, primarily of fruit shape and texture, and its interpretation by past authors, was reviewed by R. C. Barneby (1964). The broadest, almost subspheroid fruits of the more western var. praelongus appear very different from the oblong ones of the more eastern var. ellisiae, but their form is regionally clinal. Therefore, D. Isely (1998) placed the latter into var. praelongus, which is not an illogical disposition. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)	Species 10 (10 in the flora). Section Preussiani consists of three subsections: subsect. Preussiani (M. E. Jones) Barneby (Astragalus beathii, A. crotalariae, A. cutleri, A. eastwoodiae, A. debequaeus, A. preussii); subsect. Pattersoniani M. E. Jones (A. pattersonii, A. praelongus); and subsect. Sabulosi Barneby (A. iselyi, A. sabulosus). Taxa in sect. Preussiani are distributed on seleniferous substrates. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source	FNA vol. 11.	FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa	Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Preussiani > Astragalus praelongus	Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus
Sibling taxa	A. praelongus var. avonensis, A. praelongus var. lonchopus, A. praelongus var. praelongus
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms	Jonesiella ellisiae
Name authority	(Rydberg) Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 588. (1964)	M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 152. (1923)
Web links	WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Google search

Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

Ellis' stinking milkvetch

Habit

Herbs perennial (sometimes flowering as annual), course, selenophytes, clump-forming, caulescent; caudex usually superficial (sometimes subterranean in A. praelongus).

Stems

few or several to many.

Leaves

odd-pinnate, shortly subsessile to petiolate;

leaflets (1 or)3–33, jointed (terminal leaflet sometimes decurrent in A. preussii).

Racemes

loosely flowered, sometimes initially densely flowered, flowers ascending to deflexed, declined, or nodding.

Flowers

15–24 mm;

calyx lobes subulate or lanceolate-attenuate, 2–5.5 mm;

corolla ochroleucous, keel often faintly to definitely maculate.

Corollas

pink to purple, magenta-purple, reddish purple, ochroleucous, white, or yellowish, banner recurved through 30–90°, keel apex round, obtuse, blunt, bluntly triangular, or bluntly rectangular.

Calyx

tubes cylindric, sometimes base oblique or gibbous.

Legumes

ellipsoid, oblong-ellipsoid, or narrowly clavate-ellipsoid, 1.8–34 × (5–)6–10(–11) mm, strigulose, glabrous, or puberulent along sutures;

stipe 1–2.5 mm.

persistent, sessile or subsessile to stipitate, erect, spreading, or declined, narrowly ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, oblong-ellipsoid, obovoid, or subglobose, scarcely swollen to strongly inflated, unilocular or subunilocular.

Seeds

20–75(–84).

Stipules

distinct throughout.

usually distinct, rarely connate-sheathing at proximal nodes (in A. praelongus).

Hairs

basifixed.

= 24.

Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

Phenology

Flowering Apr–Jul.

Habitat

Clay soils, on Cretaceous Mancos Shale and Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle formations, on alluvial substrates containing selenium, in warm and salt desert shrub and pinyon-juniper communities.

Elevation

1300–2000 m. (4300–6600 ft.)

Distribution

CO; NM; TX; UT

[BONAP county map]

sw United States; nw Mexico

Discussion

Variation in var. praelongus, primarily of fruit shape and texture, and its interpretation by past authors, was reviewed by R. C. Barneby (1964). The broadest, almost subspheroid fruits of the more western var. praelongus appear very different from the oblong ones of the more eastern var. ellisiae, but their form is regionally clinal. Therefore, D. Isely (1998) placed the latter into var. praelongus, which is not an illogical disposition.

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

Species 10 (10 in the flora).

Section Preussiani consists of three subsections: subsect. Preussiani (M. E. Jones) Barneby (Astragalus beathii, A. crotalariae, A. cutleri, A. eastwoodiae, A. debequaeus, A. preussii); subsect. Pattersoniani M. E. Jones (A. pattersonii, A. praelongus); and subsect. Sabulosi Barneby (A. iselyi, A. sabulosus). Taxa in sect. Preussiani are distributed on seleniferous substrates.

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

Source

FNA vol. 11.

Parent taxa

Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Preussiani > Astragalus praelongus

Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus

Sibling taxa

A. praelongus var. avonensis, A. praelongus var. lonchopus, A. praelongus var. praelongus

Subordinate taxa

Synonyms

Jonesiella ellisiae

Name authority

(Rydberg) Barneby: Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13: 588. (1964)

M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 152. (1923)

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Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).

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Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

Astragalus praelongus var. ellisiae

Astragalus sect. Preussiani