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Photo is of parent taxon
Habit Herbs perennial, caulescent; caudex subterranean.
Stems

ascending or prostrate, 14–50 cm.

single or few to many.

Leaves

odd-pinnate, subsessile to petiolate;

leaflets (3–)7–25(–31), sometimes decurrent.

Racemes

loosely flowered, flowers ascending, spreading, or declined.

Flowers

5–9 mm.

Corollas

purple to pink or pink-purple, purplish, ochroleucous, yellowish, or whitish, banner recurved through 45–90°, keel apex obtuse or acute-triangular.

Calyx

tubes shallowly to deeply campanulate or subcylindric.

Legumes

ovoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, bladdery-inflated, length less than 2 times width, relatively broad, usually 6–13 mm wide.

persistent, sessile or subsessile to stipitate, spreading to declined, deflexed, or pendulous, oblong, ellipsoid, subglobose, or cylindroid, sometimes bladdery-inflated, 3-sided, subterete, or compression lateral or dorsiventral, unilocular.

Seeds

4–36.

Hairs

basifixed.

Stipules

connate at proximal nodes, distinct ± distally.

Astragalus subcinereus var. subcinereus

Astragalus sect. Scytocarpi

Phenology Flowering May–Sep.
Habitat Pon­derosa pine, white fir, pinyon-juniper, aspen, and sage­brush communities.
Elevation 1600–2600 m. (5200–8500 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NV; UT
w North America; Mexico; c North America
Discussion

Variety subcinereus occurs in Coconino and Mohave counties in Arizona, Lincoln County in Nevada, and Garfield, Kane, and Washington counties in Utah.

Much of the material in southern Utah differs from plants in Mohave County, Arizona, in having broader leaflets, longer stems, and more firmly-walled fruits, and has been called Astragalus sileranus var. cariacus. The features are weak and overlapping at best.

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

Species 14 (13 in the flora).

In the flora area, sect. Scytocarpi consists of 13 species in six subsections found on the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Colorado Basin, southward through Arizona, New Mexico, trans-Pecos Texas, and northeastern Mexico; one other subsection is found only in northeastern Mexico.

The subsections are: subsect. Scytocarpi (A. Gray) Barneby (Astragalus flexuosus, A. fucatus, A. pictiformis, A. proximus, and A. subcinereus); subsect. Wingatani Barneby (A. cliffordii and A. wingatanus); subsect. Microlobi (A. Gray) Barneby (A. gracilis); subsect. Microcymbi S. L. Welsh (A. microcymbus); subsect. Halliani (Rydberg) Barneby (A. castetteri, A. hallii, and A. puniceus); subsect. Shevockiani Barneby (A. shevockii); and subsect. Antonini Barneby (A. coriaceus Hemsley), which is confined to Mexico.

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

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Scytocarpi > Astragalus subcinereus Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus
Sibling taxa
A. subcinereus var. basalticus, A. subcinereus var. sileranus
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms A. sileranus var. cariacus
Name authority unknown A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 222. (1864)
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