Astragalus lentiginosus var. macrolobus

Plants perennial (rarely flowering first year), 6–30 cm. Leaves 4–11 cm; leaflets (9–)13–19, blades obovate or oblanceolate, 4–20 mm, apex mostly retuse, surfaces strigulose-villosulous, some hairs spreading or sinuous. Peduncles 2.5–7 cm. Racemes (8–)12–30-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (2–)3–7(–9) cm in fruit. Flowers 9.3–11.3 mm; calyx (4.5–)5–7.1 mm, tube 3–3.8 mm, lobes (1.5–)2–3.3 mm; corolla usually whitish, sometimes purple or pink-purple. Legumes green, faintly mottled, or stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, 15–25 × (6–)8–14 mm, thinly papery, translucent, glabrous or strigulose; beak 3–7 mm, unilocular. Seeds 18–26.

Phenology: Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat: On sand, with sagebrush.
Elevation: 1100–1800 m.

Nev.

Discussion

Specimens of var. macrolobus, apparently flowering the first year, have been misidentified as Astragalus geyeri, which is clearly annual and has straight, appressed (not villosulous) indumentum. Variety macrolobus occurs in northern Nevada. To the north and east, it grades into var. salinus and to the west into var. floribundus.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa