Astragalus lentiginosus var. latus (M.E.Jones) 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
"Schell Creek Range, Nevada, May, on the hillsides."—Holotypus, collected by Jones at Aurum, White Pine County, in 1891, POM!
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Synonyms
Astragalus diphysus var. latus M.E.Jones, Astragalus latus (M.E.Jones) M.E.Jones, Cystium latum (M.E.Jones) Rydb.
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Description
Variety Description - Low, loosely tufted, with a woody, suffruticulose (sometimes partly buried) caudex, the diffuse stems about 0.5-1.7 dm. long, the herbage green or subglaucescent, glabrous or nearly so, the few scattered hairs on the leaf-rachis and inflorescence appressed, up to 0.3-0.5 mm. long; leaves petioled, (4) 6-13 cm. long, with 11-17 (23) broadly obovate, ovate, or broadly oblanceolate, shallowly notched or obtuse, flat, rather thick-textured leaflets (4) 6-15 mm. long; peduncles 1.5-6 cm. long, much shorter than the leaves; racemes loosely but shortly 5-12 (18)-flowered, the axis 0.7-2 (4) cm. long in fruit; calyx (6.5) 7-12.5 mm. long, black-strigulose, the tube (4.5) 5.6-8.2 mm. long, (2.3) 2.6-3.4 mm. in diameter, the teeth (1.4) 2-4 mm. long; petals pink-purple; banner (11.3) 15-19 mm. long, (5.3) 6.5-8.2 mm. wide; wings (10.5) 13.4-16.7 mm., the claws (5.2) 6.6-9.3 mm., the blades (5.9) 7.8-8.7 mm. long; keel (9.2) 11.5-14.8 mm., the claws (5) 6.5-9 mm., the blades (4.5) 5.6-6.5 mm. long, 2.3-3 mm. wide; pod plumply ovoid or subglobose, 1-2.5 cm. long, about 0.7-1.6 cm. in diameter, contracted at apex into an erect or incurved, fully bilocular beak 0.250.5 cm. long, the green but red-mottled, glabrous valves becoming leathery, stramineous, the septum broad and complete; ovules 22-28, rarely 12-14.
Distribution and Ecology - Open gravelly slopes in the timber belt, 7500-9500 feet, on limestone, forming colonies but apparently local, known only from the Schell Creek and Egan Ranges, White Pine County, Nevada.—Map No. 129.—May to July.
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Discussion
As it occurs in the Schell Creek Range, at Aurum and Schellbourne, var. latus is a rather handsome plant, notable for the shortness of the stems and peduncles in relation to the long, narrow flowers and swollen, humistrate pods. The plants known to me from Ward Mountain in the Egan Range have stems mostly longer and at the same time substantially smaller flowers and pods. In general appearance they resemble var. toyabensis of the volcanic and granitic mountains of central Nevada, but the pod is essentially that of var. latus, with coriaceous walls and a broad septum produced into the apex of the beak. This last feature is the variety’s strongest differential character. It will be interesting to learn of new stations for what seems at present to be one of the most narrowly confined forms of the freckled milk-vetch. It is to be sought especially in the Snake Range and on Troy Peak, from which there is yet no montane form of A. lentiginosus.
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Objects
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Distribution
Nevada United States of America North America|