Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Authority

    Barneby, Rupert C. 1964. Atlas of North American Astragalus. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13(2): 597-1188.

  • Family

    Fabaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus

  • Type

    "Reese River Pass of the Shoshone Mountains, Nevada; 5500 feet altitude; July. [Watson] 278."—Holotypus, collected in 1868, US! isotypi, GH, NY!

  • Synonyms

    Tragacantha oophora (S.Watson) Kuntze, Phaca jucunda Jeps. & Rydb., Astragalus jucundus (Jeps. & Rydb.) M.Peck

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Objects

    Specimen - 677417, V. Duran 2782, Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus, Fabaceae (152.0), Magnoliophyta; North America, United States of America, Nevada, Esmeralda Co.

    Specimen - 00677418, B. Maguire 25249, Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus, Fabaceae (152.0), Magnoliophyta; North America, United States of America, Nevada, Esmeralda Co.

    Specimen - 01246135, M. E. Jones s.n., Astragalus oophorus S.Watson var. oophorus, Fabaceae (152.0), Magnoliophyta; North America, United States of America, California, Inyo Co.

  • Distribution

    California United States of America North America| Nevada United States of America North America|