Astragalus sect. Ervoidei
several to many.
odd-pinnate, sessile or subsessile to petiolate;
leaflets (3–)5–21, jointed or decurrent.
sometimes paired, loosely or remotely flowered, flowers ascending, spreading, or declined.
pink-purple, whitish, or ochroleucous, banner recurved through 40–90°, keel apex obtuse.
tubes usually campanulate, sometimes turbinate-campanulate.
eventually deciduous or persistent, sessile or stipitate, deflexed, declined, or pendulous, linear, oblong, ellipsoid, lenticular, or ovoid- or obovoid-subglobose, compressed laterally or bladdery-inflated, unilocular.
2–9(–11).
usually basifixed, rarely malpighian (in some varieties of A. kentrophyta).
connate or distinct at distal nodes.
Astragalus sect. Ervoidei
Species 5 (5 in the flora).
Section Ervoidei consists of three subsections, widely distributed from Yukon southward to California, New Mexico, Hudson Bay, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
The subsections are: subsect. Ervoidei (Torrey & A. Gray) Barneby (Astragalus bourgovii, A. multiflorus, A. vexilliflexus); subsect. Microcystei (A. Gray) Barneby (A. microcystis); and subsect. Submonospermi (A. Gray) Barneby (A. kentrophyta).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
