Astragalus whitneyi var. whitneyi
Astragalus sect. Cusickiani
balloonpod milkvetch, Whitney's milk vetch
strigulose, hairs appressed or narrowly ascending, straight or subsinuous, (0.3–)0.4–0.6 mm.
low and diffuse or erect (when supported by sagebrush), 5–25 cm.
usually several to many, rarely single or few clustered (A. ceramicus).
(1.5–)3–11 cm;
leaflets 9–17(or 19), blades 2–13(–15) mm.
odd-pinnate, subsessile to short-petiolate or petiolate;
leaflets (0 or 1–)5–23, distally reduced to phyllodia;
terminal leaflet often decurrent.
(3–)5–15-flowered;
axis 1–4(–4.5) cm in fruit.
loosely flowered, flowers ascending, spreading, or declined, eventually all declined.
calyx 4.5–6.4 mm, tube (3.5–)3.7–4.2(–4.7) mm, lobes 0.8–1.5(–1.8) mm;
corolla lilac or pink-purple, wing tips pale or white;
banner (8.3–)10–14.2(–16.5) mm.
white, pinkish white to pinkish red, yellowish, ochroleucous, or purplish, banner recurved through 35–90°, keel apex triangular or deltate, obtuse, or subacute, sometimes beaklike.
tubes subcylindric or campanulate.
15–30(–40) × 10–18(–22) mm, glabrous;
stipe 2–4.5 mm.
eventually deciduous, usually stipitate, rarely sessile (A. ceramicus), pendulous, narrowly oblong and strongly compressed, or bladdery-inflated and obovoid-ellipsoid, unilocular.
18–30.
10–30(–37).
usually basifixed, sometimes malpighian (A. ceramicus).
connate or distinct at distal nodes.
= 22.
Astragalus whitneyi var. whitneyi
Astragalus sect. Cusickiani
Ranging from the mountains of southern California through the Sierra Nevada to northwestern Nevada, the widespread var. whitneyi can usually be distinguished by its red-purple or pink-purple petals and the fruits of relatively medium size. Morphological characters overlap, and some specimens of vars. siskiyouensis and whitneyi can be distinguished only by origin.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 6 (6 in the flora).
Section Cusickiani consists of three subsections distributed in the Columbia and Great basins, and Colorado Plateau, from southern British Columbia (although less commonly so), southward to Baja California, eastward to New Mexico, and northward to North Dakota.
The subsections are: subsect. Inversi (M. E. Jones) Barneby (Astragalus californicus, A. filipes, A. inversus); subsect. Hookeriani M. E. Jones (A. cusickii, A. whitneyi); and subsect. Picti (M. E. Jones) Barneby (A. ceramicus).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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