Astragalus tephrodes var. tephrodes
Astragalus sect. Argophylli
ashen milkvetch
1–12(–15) cm.
(when present) obsolete, single, few, or several to many.
4.5–10(–19) cm;
leaflets (11–)17–27(–31), blades mostly conduplicate, loosely folded, obovate-cuneate or oblanceolate, 3–16 mm, apex obtuse, emarginate, or subacute.
odd-pinnate, usually petiolate, rarely short-petiolate or subsessile;
leaflets (1 or)3–39(–43).
(9–)11–20-flowered;
axis 2–6(–8.5) cm in fruit.
subcapitate to loosely flowered, flowers erect, ascending, spreading, declined, or nodding, secund, and retrorsely imbricate.
4–14(–17) cm.
11.8–17.5 mm;
calyx (5–)6.4–8.5(–9.2) mm, tube (3.5–)4.5–6.8(–8) mm, lobes 1.2–2.2 mm;
corolla banner 11.8–17.5 mm;
keel 10.2–14.5 mm.
purple, pink-purple, magenta-purple, violet, bluish, lilac, scarlet, ochroleucous, greenish white, or white, banner barely recurved (A. phoenix) or recurved through 20–50° (90–100° in A. accumbens), keel apex obtuse.
tubes cylindric or deeply campanulate.
obliquely ovoid-acuminate, 13–20 × 5–8 mm, beak 3–6 mm, thinly leathery, hardly rigid, not rugulose, densely pilosulous.
usually deciduous, usually sessile, rarely subsessile or substipitate, gynophore sometimes present, usually ascending (humistrate), less often spreading or pendulous, subglobose to ellipsoid, narrowly lanceoloid, ovoid or oblong-ellipsoid, or lanceoloid-ovoid, straight or usually incurved, usually compressed dorsiventrally, sometimes obcompressed, 3-sided, turgid, or inflated, unilocular, subunilocular, or bilocular.
26–31.
11–70.
2–7 mm.
distinct (except anomalous forms of A. missouriensis, A. tephrodes, and A. zionis).
basifixed or malpighian.
= 22.
Astragalus tephrodes var. tephrodes
Astragalus sect. Argophylli
Variety tephrodes is locally plentiful in the foothills of the Mogollon and Pinos Altos mountains in southwestern New Mexico, eastward to the Organ Mountains and southward into Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 44 (44 in the flora).
Section Argophylli comprises ten subsections, widespread in western North America from southern British Columbia and Saskatchewan southward to northern Baja California, northern Sonora, and western Texas.
The subsections are: subsect. Argophylli (A. Gray) M. E. Jones (Astragalus argophyllus, A. callithrix, A. columbianus, A. cyaneus, A. desereticus, A. eurylobus, A. henrimontanensis, A. iodopetalus, A. piutensis, A. shortianus, A. tephrodes, A. tidestromii, A. uncialis, A. zionis); subsect. Pseudargophylli Barneby (A. feensis, A. waterfallii); subsect. Neomexicani Barneby (A. neomexicanus); subsect. Newberryani M. E. Jones (A. eurekensis, A. loanus, A. musiniensis, A. newberryi, A. phoenix, A. welshii); subsect. Concordi S. L. Welsh (A. concordius); subsect. Coccinei M. E. Jones (A. coccineus); subsect. Eriocarpi (A. Gray) Barneby (A. anserinus, A. funereus, A. inflexus, A. leucolobus, A. nudisiliquus, A. purshii, A. subvestitus, A. utahensis); subsect. Parryani Barneby (A. parryi); subsect. Missourienses M. E. Jones (A. accumbens, A. amphioxys, A. castaneiformis, A. chamaeleuce, A. consobrinus, A. cymboides, A. laccoliticus, A. missouriensis, A. piscator); and subsect. Anisi Barneby (A. anisus).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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