Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus
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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
"Reese River Pass of the Shoshone Mountains, Nevada; 5500 feet altitude; July. [Watson] 278."—Holotypus, collected in 1868, US! isotypi, GH, NY!
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Synonyms
Tragacantha oophora (S.Watson) Kuntze, Phaca jucunda Jeps. & Rydb., Astragalus jucundus (Jeps. & Rydb.) M.Peck
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Description
Variety Description - Relatively robust and large-flowered; leaflets 9-19 (21); calyx-tube glabrous, often purplish, (4.6) 5-6.5 mm. long, 3.4-4.5 mm. in diameter, the teeth 2-4.2 mm. long; banner broadly oblanceolate or obovate-cuneate, 8-12 mm. wide; wings 15-20.5 mm. long, the claws 6-9 mm., the blades (9) 10.5-13.5 mm. long, 2.7-3.7 mm. wide; keel-claws 5.7-8 mm., the blades (5.2) 6-8.5 mm. long, 3-4.5 mm. wide gynophore 3.5-8 (10) mm. long; pod (2.5) 3.5-5.5 cm. long, the broadly obconic beak erect or a trifle oblique, usually not strongly differentiated from the body.
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Discussion
The typical form of the egg milk-vetch or spindle loco (as Jepson has called it) is well characterized by its parti-colored flowers and large, fusiform, swollen fruits which are ordinarily mottled with red on a pale green ground. It is one of the few astragali characterized by a truly glabrous calyx-tube. Pod and gynophore both vary considerably in length in var. oophorus, but the variety is rather uniform in other respects.
Open hillsides and gullied banks, in dry, gravelly or sandy soils derived from various sedimentary and eruptive rocks, commonly with piñon and sagebrush, (5000) 5500-10,200 feet, locally plentiful and rather frequent in the desert ranges from the Panamint Mountains and upper Owens Valley, California, northeast to the upper Walker River and the Toquima, Toiyabe, and Monitor ranges in westcentral and central Nevada; reported (as A. jucundus, Peck, 1941, p. 446) from southern Malheur County, Oregon, but no specimens found at WILLU.- Map No. 105.—May to July.
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Objects
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Distribution
California United States of America North America| Nevada United States of America North America|