Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis M.E.Jones
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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(2): 597-1188.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"Bakersfield, Kern County, California, Miss Eastwood, March 24, 1893."—Neotypus (Barneby, 1945, p. 127), collected by Eastwood at San Emigdio, Kern County, March 8, 1893, POM!—The holotypus, not found at CAS, probably lost in the fire of 1906, represented
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Synonyms
Cystium nigricalyce (M.E.Jones) Rydb., Astragalus nigricalycis (M.E.Jones) Abrams
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Description
Variety Description - Perennial, commonly stout and coarse, the diffuse or assurgent stems (2) 2.5-5 dm. long, often fistular at base, cinereously or canescently villosulous (villous) with ascending or spreading (and often some shorter, curly or entangled), white and often partly black hairs up to 0.6—0.9 (1.2) mm. long, the herbage greenish-cinereous, the leaflets bicolored, villosulous beneath, glabrous or more thinly villosulous and yellowish-green above; leaves (4) 6—16 cm. long, with 19-25 oblong-oblanceolate to broadly obovate or rhombic-obovate, nearly always retuse, flat leaflets (3) 7-25 mm. long; peduncles mostly incurved-ascending, 4-11 cm. long; racemes at first rather closely, at length loosely (10) 15—32-flowered, the axis (2.5) 4.5-11 cm. long in fruit; calyx 6.4-8.2 mm. long, villosulous with black, fuscous, and often partly (rarely all) white hairs, the tube 4.7-6.2 mm. long, (2.7) 3-3.5 mm. in diameter, the teeth 1.4-2.5 mm. long; petals creamy- or greenish-yellow, decidedly yellow when dry, immaculate; banner rhombic- obovate or -oblanceolate, 12-17 (18.5) mm. long, (6.5) 7.5-10.4 mm. wide; wings 11-15.6 mm., the claws 5.2-7 (7.7) mm., the blades (6.4) 7.4-9.1 mm. long, 2.1—3.2 mm. wide; keel 10.8—13 (14.1) mm. long, the claws 6—7.5 mm., the blades (5.4) 6.2—7.4 mm. long, 2.8—3.3 mm. wide; pod obliquely ovoid- acuminate, greatly inflated, (1.7) 2-3.5 cm. long, 1-2 (when pressed up to 1.3) cm. in diameter, contracted abruptly or tapering into a triangular-acuminate beak 4—8 mm. long, the mottled, villosulous valves becoming papery, the complete septum 2.5—5.5 mm. wide, usually produced into the base of the beak.
Distribution and Ecology - Rolling hills, plains, gravelly banks, and road cuttings, 300-2500 (3190) feet, common and locally abundant on the arid grasslands of the Inner South Coast Ranges from southwestern Fresno County, California, south to the Cuyama Valley in Santa Barbara County, and the foothills around the head of the Great Valley in Kem County.—Map No. 128.—March to May, rarely again in fall.
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Discussion
Although very closely related to var. variabilis and scarcely distinguishable when in fruit from some villosulous phases of it, the present variety is readily recognized in practice by its yellowish petals and cismontane range of dispersal. The fresh flowers, as I have seen them, are of a peculiar greenish- or creamy-white which turns bright lemon-yellow when dried and creates a striking contrast with the usually copious black or fuscous vesture of the inflorescence. Where var. nigricalycis and var. idriensis are found near together in the Coast Ranges, the latter may be recognized after the purple flowers have faded by its subappressed vesture and shortly racemose pods of more stiffly papery or leathery texture. The variety is one of the least variable forms of A. lentiginosus. It seems to have been collected first in 1876, near Fort Tejon, by William Kennedy (F).
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Objects
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Distribution
California United States of America North America|