Astragalus cimae var. sufflatus Barneby
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. 1964. Atlas of North American Astragalus. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13(1): 1-596.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"California: 15 miles north of Darwin, Inyo Co., alt. 5000 ft., 29 May 1939, Edmund Jaeger..—Holotypus, POM! isotypi, DS, UTC!
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Description
Variety Description - Identical to var. cimae, except for the pod, as described in the key [Key: "Pod larger, the body (2) 3-3.7 cm. long, 1.3-2.1 cm. in diameter, the valves thin-textured and greatly inflated, becoming papery, openly sulcate along both sutures below the beak, the sutures both slender and not or little prominent; septum 2-3.5 mm. wide"]; stipe 5—12 mm. long, the body varying from nearly straight to incurved through ± 90° to bring the beak erect in a plane parallel to the raceme-axis.
Distribution and Ecology - Calcareous clay soil, on gentle slopes and flats among sagebrush, sometimes in open pinon-forest, 5000—6000 feet, very local, known only from the east slope of the Inyo Mountains about the south end of Saline Valley, Inyo County, California.—Map No. 60.—Late April to early June.
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Discussion
The stipitate, inflated, fully bilocular pod of var. sufflatus, presumably derived from the thick-textured, solid one of var. cimae, is similar in outline and structure to that of A. (Hesperonix) Bolanderi, a species of middle elevations in the Sierra Nevada, which is distinguished by its connate stipules and many other characters. The resemblance in the fruit alone is no doubt coincidental. In the fresh state, the pod of var. sufflatus is glaucescent like the foliage but minutely red-dotted on a greenish ground; in ripening, it turns straw-color with reddish cheeks.
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Objects
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Distribution
California United States of America North America|