Astragalus cusickii A.Gray
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Authority
New York Botanical Garden. Herbarium of Dr. Per Axel Rydberg. Purchased, 1899. Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Perennial from a creeping rootstock: stem about 5 dm. high, strigose, somewhat branched; leaves pinnate of 6-9 pairs of linear leaflets which are 2-3 cm. long and about 2 mm. wide, glabrous above and slightly strigose beneath; raceme with a 1-2 dm. long peduncle, rather lax and few-flowered; flowers almost sessile, about 12 mm. long; calyx about 7 mm. long, strigose with dark hairs; lobes short, lanceolate and unequal; corolla yellow; pod with a stipe which is about 1 cm. long and curved upwards, upright, oblong, obcordate in cross-section, with the dorsal suture strongly inflexed to about half-way to the ventral one, subcoriaceous, the body being about 2 cm. long.
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Discussion
The specimens were named A. arrectus Gray?, to which species it has a superficial resemblance, differing in the pod, the structure of which places it near A. Dritmmondii and A. scopulorum. From these it differs, however, in the short erect pod. It grows on dry hillsides.
Oregon: Malheur, 1885, W. C. Ciisick, 1238 (Gray Herbarium).