Astragalus coriaceus

Title

Astragalus coriaceus

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Astragalus coriaceus Hemsl.

Description

45. Astragalus coriaceus

Slender, diffuse or ascending, rather sparsely leafy, strigulose with appressed or subappressed hairs up to 0.25-0.45 mm. long, the herbage green or greenish- cinereous, the leaflets bicolored, brighter green and usually glabrous above or nearly so, rarely pubescent on both sides; stems several, 1.5-3.5 dm. long, naked and subterranean for a space of 1-15 cm., commonly branched on emergence, sometimes simple; stipules dimorphic, the lowest amplexicaul and connate into a subtruncate or bidentate sheath 1-2 mm. long, the median and upper ones lanceolate or triangular-acuminate, almost or fully amplexicaul, united by a mere line; leaves (2) 3.5-9 cm. long, subsessile, or the lowest shortly petioled, with 11-23 rather distant, oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, obtuse or retuse, flat or folded leaflets 2-20 mm. long; peduncles divaricate or incurved-ascending, (4) 5-14 cm. long, longer than the leaf; racemes loosely 5-12 (16)-flowered, the flowers erect- ascending, the axis becoming (1.5) 2—8 cm. long in fruit; bracts submembranous, triangular or nearly so, 1—2.5 mm. long; pedicels ascending, straight or nearly so, at anthesis 1—1.5 mm. long, in fruit a little thickened, 1.4-3 mm. long; bracteoles 0-2, minute when present; calyx 5.8—8.6 mm. long, strigulose with black, white, or mixed black and white hairs, the oblique disc 1.1—1.9 mm. deep, the cylindric or cylindro-campanulate tube (4.5) 5—6.2 mm. long, 2.1-3 mm. (3.4) in diameter, the subulate or lance-subulate teeth (1) 1.5—3 mm. long; petals pink-purple or purplish; banner gently recurved through ± 45°, broadly rhombic-oblanceolate or rhombic, notched at apex, (13) 14-17 mm. long, 5.5-8.4 (10) mm. wide; wings (12) 13-15.2 mm. long, the claws 4.3-7 mm., the elliptic-oblanceolate, obtuse, erose-emarginate, or shallowly retuse, slightly incurved blades 8-9.6 mm. long, 2.5-3.3 mm. wide; keel 10-13 mm. long, the claws 4.1-6.5 mm., the half-obovate blades 5.8-7 mm. long, 2.5-3.3 mm. wide, incurved through 80-90° to the blunt apex; anthers 0.6-0.7 mm. long; pod erect, sessile or nearly so, sometimes contracted at base into a stipelike neck up to 1 mm. long, the body obliquely ovoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, turgid to decidedly inflated, either obtuse or turbinate at base, shortly deltoid or more rarely long-acuminate distally, (1.2) 1.4-2.2 (2.4) cm. long, (5) 6-9 mm. in diameter, slightly obcompressed, the thinly fleshy, green, minutely black- or white-strigulose valves becoming stiffly papery or almost leathery, castaneous, cross-reticulate; dehiscence apical; ovules 20-30; seeds (seldom seen) dark brown, sparsely or closely pitted, dull, 2.1-2.8 mm. long.—Collections: 12 (i); representative: Purpus 4581 (POM, US); Stanford, Weatherford & Northcraft 17 (ARIZ, GH, NY, PH), 468 (GH), 565 (ARIZ, GH, NY, PH); Gentry 6962 (MICH, NY); C. H. Mueller 2317 (MICH, TEX); Waterfall 12,516 (RSA); Ripley & Barneby 13,464 (CAS, NY, RSA).