Astragalus sect. Diphysi
single or few to many.
odd-pinnate, petiolate to subsessile;
leaflets (3–)7–27(or 29).
loosely or remotely flowered or subumbellate, flowers ascending to spreading or declined.
usually white, lilac, purple, or pink- to magenta-purple, lavender, or violet, sometimes ochroleucous or yellowish, keel apex usually purple, banner recurved through 30–50°, keel apex round, obtuse, or bluntly deltate.
tubes cylindric or campanulate.
usually deciduous, sometimes persistent, usually sessile, rarely short-stipitate, ascending, spreading, deflexed, or declined, linear, narrowly lanceoloid to oblanceoloid or ellipsoid, oblong, ovoid to obovoid, subglobose, or triangular-obcordate, ventral suture deeply grooved and appearing ± didymous, strongly inflated, terete, dorsiventrally compressed, or 3-sided compressed, straight or curved, usually bilocular, sometimes semibilocular or unilocular.
(7–)10–42.
basifixed.
distinct.
Astragalus sect. Diphysi
Species 3 (3 in the flora).
Section Diphysi has wide distribution in western North America, from British Columbia southward to northwestern Mexico. One of the species, Astragalus lentiginosus, consists of 42 varieties and is as complex an assemblage as occurs in many genera.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
