Astragalus oophorus S.Watson
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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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Description
Species Description - Low, robust or quite slender, caulescent even though shortly so, appearing glabrous, but bearing a few scattered, appressed or narrowly ascending hairs up to 0.35-0.6 mm. long on the leaf-rachis, leaflet-margins, bracts, and sinuses between the calyx-teeth, the herbage dark green or subglaucescent, thick-textured; stems several or numerous, decumbent and ascending, (0.25) 1.5—2.5 dm. long, simple or spurred at the lower axils; stipules thinly herbaceous becoming papery, (1.5) 2.5-7 mm. long, variably amplexicaul-decurrent, the lowest ones around half to the whole stem’s circumference but free, the upper ones around half or less, with deltoid or deltoid-acuminate, spreading or deflexed blades; leaves 5-15 cm. long, all petioled, with 9-21 (25) oval, obovate, or suborbicular, obtuse or retuse, but often mucronulate, more rarely (in some upper or even all leaves) elliptic and acute, flat leaflets 4—20 mm. long; peduncles ascending or incurved, 4-10 (13) cm. long, mostly shorter than the leaf; racemes loosely 4-10 (13)- flowered, the flowers subhorizontal at anthesis, the axis 1—5 (8) cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous, or firm but pallid, narrowly ovate or lanceolate, (1.5) 2.5-5 mm long; pedicels at anthesis ascending, 2-4 mm. long, in fruit either straight and ascending or arched outward, (2.5) 3—6 mm. long; bracteoles 0—2, calyx 6—12 mm. long, glabrous or thinly strigulose with mostly black hairs, the slightly oblique disc 0.6—1.5 mm. deep, the tube either campanulate or cylindric, the subulate or subulate-setaceous teeth 2—5 mm. long, nearly always shorter than the tube, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals either purple with white wing-tips or ochroleucous, then sometimes lilac-tinged; banner recurved through ± 85°, varying from oblanceolate to rhombic-elliptic or obovate-cuneate, 11-23 mm. long; wings as long or commonly a little shorter, 11-21 mm. long, the blades narrowly oblong to lance-oblong, obtuse or subemarginate, mostly straight in the lower half and thence tapering and gently incurved; keel 9.5—16 mm. long; anthers 0.6-0.8 (0.9) mm. long; pod widely spreading or pendulous, or humistrate and then apparently ascending, the slender, straight or decurved gynophore 3.5-12 mm. long, the body ellipsoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, bladdery-inflated, 3-5.5 cm. long, 1-2 (or when pressed up to 3) cm. in diameter, the papery, glabrous valves at first pale green commonly mottled with reddish-purple, becoming stramineous or brownish and finely reticulate, not inflexed, the funicular flange narrow or almost lacking, 0.2—0.7 mm. wide; ovules 28—54; seeds brown, dull, finely and regularly punctate, 3-3.7 mm. long.
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Discussion