Flora of North America species comparison

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Astragalus zionis var. zionis

Astragalus sect. Argophylli
Photo is of parent taxon

Zion milkvetch
Habit Plants mat- or tuft-forming, usually to 2.5 dm wide. Herbs perennial (sometimes flowering as annual), usually tuft- or mat-forming, acaulescent, subacaulescent, or caulescent; caudex usually superficial or aerial, sometimes subterranean.
Stems

(when present) obsolete, single, few, or several to many.
Leaves

odd-pinnate, usually petiolate, rarely short-petiolate or subsessile;

leaflets (1 or)3–39(–43).
Racemes

subcapitate to loosely flowered, flowers erect, ascending, spreading, declined, or nodding, secund, and retrorsely imbricate.
Corollas

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.
Calyx

tubes cylindric or deeply campanulate.
Legumes

15–25(–28) × 5.5–9 mm.

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.
Seeds

11–70.
Hairs

basifixed or malpighian.
Stipules

distinct (except anomalous forms of A. missouriensis, A. tephrodes, and A. zionis).

Astragalus zionis var. zionis

Astragalus sect. Argophylli
Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat On sandstone, on sandy and gravelly soils in blackbrush, sagebrush, Ephedra, other mixed desert shrub, sometimes salt desert shrub, mountain brush, ponderosa pine, and riparian communities.
Elevation 1300–2500 m. (4300–8200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NM; NV; UT
[BONAP county map]
w North America; n Mexico
Discussion

The caudex of var. zionis is often slightly subterranean, being buried in duff or in sand, and the stipules are conspicuously white and white-pilose, mainly concealing the internodes.

(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.)
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus > sect. Argophylli > Astragalus zionis Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Astragalus
Sibling taxa
A. zionis var. vigulus
Subordinate taxa
Name authority unknown A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 6: 209. (1864)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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