Astragalus oophorus var. oophorus

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.—Collections: 32 (iii); representative: Jones (from Summit, Owens Valley) in 1897 (CAS, NY, POM, US); Maguire & Holmgren 25,249 (NY, RSA, SMU, UTC, WS); Duran 2782 (CAS, DS, NY, OB, WIS); Ripley & Barneby 6178 (RSA).

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.

Astragalus oophorus (egg-bearing, of the large pods) Wats., Bot. King 73. 1871.— "Reese River Pass of the Shoshone Mountains, Nevada; 5500 feet altitude; July. [Watson] 278."—Holotypus, collected in 1868, US! isotypi, GH, NY!—Tragacantha oophora (Wats.) O. Kze., Rev. Gen. 947. 1891. Phaca oophora (Wats.) Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24: 338. 1929.

Phaca jucunda (delightful) Jeps. & Rydb. ex Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24: 339. 1929.— "Telescope Peak, Panamint Mountains, California, 1917, W. L. Jepson."—Holotypus, Jepson 7005, JEPS!—Astragalus jucundus (Jeps. & Rydb.) Peck, Man. Pl. Ore. 446. 1941, attributed to Rydb. & Jeps.," evidently based on the preceding.

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.