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

	Astragalus praelongus var. praelongus	Astragalus sect. Preussiani
	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 deltate to lanceolate-subulate, 0.3–4.7 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	broadly oblong to ellipsoid, 20–38(–42) × (9–)10–15(–25) mm, glabrous or puberulent; stipe obconic when present, 0–2.5 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	= 22, 24.

	Astragalus praelongus var. praelongus	Astragalus sect. Preussiani
Phenology	Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat	Clay and silt of the Cretaceous Mancos and Tropic shales, Triassic Moenkopi, and Chinle formations, other seleniferous soils, in salt desert shrub and pinyon-juniper communities.
Elevation	700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.)
Distribution	AZ; CO; NM; NV; UT [BONAP county map]	sw United States; nw Mexico
Discussion	An extreme phase of var. praelongus is present in Zion Canyon and vicinity, growing tall and with fistulous stems. Variety praelongus is highly toxic but is seldom grazed by healthy animals except during drought. W. E. Fox et al. (1998) reported that plants also contained swainsonine. The Hopi reportedly used the plant, under the name siskinga, in treatment of bladder problems. (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. ellisiae, A. praelongus var. lonchopus
Subordinate taxa
Name authority	unknown	M. E. Jones: Rev. N.-Amer. Astragalus, 152. (1923)
Web links	Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos 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. praelongus

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

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 deltate to lanceolate-subulate, 0.3–4.7 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

broadly oblong to ellipsoid, 20–38(–42) × (9–)10–15(–25) mm, glabrous or puberulent;

stipe obconic when present, 0–2.5 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.

= 22, 24.

Astragalus praelongus var. praelongus

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

Phenology

Flowering Apr–Jul.

Habitat

Clay and silt of the Cretaceous Mancos and Tropic shales, Triassic Moenkopi, and Chinle formations, other seleniferous soils, in salt desert shrub and pinyon-juniper communities.

Elevation

700–2600 m. (2300–8500 ft.)

Distribution

AZ; CO; NM; NV; UT

[BONAP county map]

sw United States; nw Mexico

Discussion

An extreme phase of var. praelongus is present in Zion Canyon and vicinity, growing tall and with fistulous stems.

Variety praelongus is highly toxic but is seldom grazed by healthy animals except during drought. W. E. Fox et al. (1998) reported that plants also contained swainsonine. The Hopi reportedly used the plant, under the name siskinga, in treatment of bladder problems.

(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. ellisiae, A. praelongus var. lonchopus

Subordinate taxa

Name authority

unknown

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. praelongus

Astragalus sect. Preussiani

Astragalus praelongus var. praelongus

Astragalus sect. Preussiani