Plants annual, winter-annual, or perennial (short-lived), some­times loosely tuft-forming, 5–40(–65) cm, silvery-strigulose, hairs basifixed. Stems decum­bent to weakly ascending; silvery-strigulose. Leaves 2–10(–12.5) cm; stipules 1.8–3.5 mm, membranous or thinly her­baceous; leaflets (3 or)5–11, blades rhombic-elliptic, obovate-cuneate, or suborbiculate, 3–18 mm, apex obtuse or shallowly retuse, surfaces silvery-strigulose, appearing frosted. Peduncles erect or divaricate and ascending, often humistrate in fruit, 1.5–7(–10) cm. Racemes loosely 3–16-flowered, flowers ascending to declined; axis 0.8–7 cm in fruit; bracts 1–2.2 mm; bracteoles 0–2. Pedicels 0.6–3 mm. Flowers 7–12.5 mm; calyx 4–7.2 mm, strigulose, tube 2.5–4.4 mm, lobes subulate, 1.5–2.8 mm; corolla pink-purple; banner recurved through 45; keel 6.8–10.7 mm, apex round. Legumes declined or pendulous, stramineous or brown­ish, straight or incurved, oblong, or broadly and plumply so to oblong-ellipsoid or clavately oblong, (13–)15–28(–32) × 3.5–8.5 mm, fleshy becoming leathery or subligneous, densely strigulose; gynophore to 0.8 mm. Seeds 20–30.

Distribution

w United States.

Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

The distinctive fruit of Astragalus mohavensis, leath­ery when mature and ventrally crested, has long funiculi extending into the cavity bearing the ovules or seeds. The two varieties can be distinguished only in fruit.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Astragalus mohavensis var. hemigyrus, Astragalus mohavensis var. mohavensis

Key

1	Legumes 15–28(–32) × (5–)5.5–8.5 mm, broadly and plumply oblong to oblong ellipsoid or clavately oblong in profile, usually straight or somewhat incurved, rarely lunately so; Mojave Desert, California, s Nevada.	Astragalus mohavensis var. mohavensis
1	Legumes (13–)15–25(–30) × 3.5–5.5(–6.5) mm, oblong, lunately to strongly and hamately incurved; Death Valley and Spring (Charleston) Mountains vicinity in California and Nevada.	Astragalus mohavensis var. hemigyrus