Astragalus miser var. praeteritus 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
"Montana. Along Ruby River, 2 miles south of Vigilante Experiment Station, Madison Co., 28 July, 1947, C. L. Hitchcock No. 16944... ’’—Holotypus, WS! isotypi, NY, RSA!
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Description
Variety Description - Usually dwarf and tufted, the stems (1.5) 2.5-20 cm. long; herbage silvery- cinereous throughout with straight or nearly straight, appressed and some few ascending hairs up to 0.4-0.7 (0.8) mm. long, the leaflets nearly always equally pubescent on both sides; leaves (1.5) 2.5-9.5 cm. long, with 7-13 (15) linear- elliptic, very acute, mostly folded or involute, often falcately incurved leaflets 2-20 mm. long, the terminal one of all or of nearly all leaves longer than and remote from the last pair, tapering into and continuous with the rachis; racemes loosely (3) 5-12-flowered, the axis (1) 1.5-7.5 cm. long in fruit; calyx (2.3) 2.8-3.9 mm. long, the tube (1.7) 2.2-2.9 mm., the teeth 0.6-1.4 mm. long; petals whitish or straw-color, sometimes veined with brownish-lilac; banner 6.6-8.6 (10) mm. long, (4.5) 5-7.4 mm. wide; wings 5.5-7.8 (8.1) mm. long, the claws 1.6-2.5 (2.9) mm., the blades 4.2-5.7 (6) mm. long, (1.3) 1.6-2.5 mm. wide; keel 6.2-8.3 (8.8) mm. long, the claws 1.7-2.6 (3) mm., the blades (4.4) 4.6-6 mm. long, 1.9-2.3 mm. wide; pod exactly linear, or a trifle dilated upward and linear- oblanceolate, or (when short) linear-elliptic in profile, straight or nearly so, 1.1-2 cm. long (2) 2.5-3.4 mm. in diameter, subsymmetric at apex, the valves densely strigulose, commonly mottled with brownish-purple; ovules 7-11.
Distribution and Ecology - Dry banks, hillsides, and gravelly knolls, commonly among sagebrush, but ascending to grassy and stony slopes in open lodgepole pine forest, 5200-8000 feet, locally plentiful on the forks of the Missouri in southwestern Montana, from the valley of the Madison River westward and southward across the Divide to the upper Lemhi, Salmon and Lost Rivers in eastcentral Idaho, south through Yellowstone Park to the Grand Tetons and Hoback River in northwestern Wyoming.— Map No. 21.—May to August.
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Discussion
With var. praeteritus I begin to describe the three forms of the weedy milk-vetch set off collectively from the rest by a suprabasal hair-attachment. They are closely interrelated, all low tufted plants with gray or silvery foliage, difficult to distinguish without somewhat minute observation. Of the three the var. praeteritus is apparently the least specialized, often being separable from var. tenuifolius by the form of the hairs alone; and the dolabriform hairs themselves are sometimes few and scattered and, moreover, affixed close to the lower end, so that in effect there is in this variety a gradual transition from one type of vesture to the other. Populations of var. praeteritus with only few dolabriform hairs are particularly common on the headwaters of the Snake River and in the foothills of the Tetons, precisely where its range abuts on that of var. tenuifolius.
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Objects
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Distribution
Montana United States of America North America| Idaho United States of America North America| Wyoming United States of America North America|