Astragalus Nuttallii var. Nuttallii

Hairs of the herbage spreading, incurved-ascending, or curly, the longest ones up to 0.5-1.25 mm. long; leaflets equally pubescent on both sides or more thinly so above, rarely only ciliate on the margins and prominent midrib beneath; stems 2-7.5 dm. long; stipules either all connate, or only the lower ones of the main stems and branches fully amplexicaul, the sheath sometimes ruptured; leaves 2.5-15 cm. long; racemes (15) 20-50-flowered, the axis 3-8 (10) cm. long in fruit; calyx (5.6) 5.8-8.2 mm. long, the tube (4) 4.3-5.7 mm., the teeth 1.3-3 mm. long; banner (10.5) 11-14.5 mm. long; wings 11-13.7 mm. long; keel 10.5—12 mm. long; pod (2.3) 2.6—5.5 (6) cm. long, 1.7—2.7 cm. in diameter.— Collections: 45 (ii); representative: Elmer 3523 (CAS, NY), 4375 (CAS, NY, WTU); Eastwood & Howell 1903 (CAS, NY); 5974 (CAS); Eastwood 13,742, 13,669, 15,058 (CAS); Barneby 11,274 (CAS, RSA); E. K. Balls 16,383 (NY).

Ocean bluffs and rocky or sandy shores below 200 feet, sometimes on dunes, locally abundant on the coast of California, from Monterey Bay south to Point Conception, in Monterey, San Luis Obispo and western Santa Barbara Counties. —Map No. 110.—January to November, probably throughout the year.

Astragalus Nuttallii (T. & G.) J. T. How. in Leafl. West. Bot. 5: 107. 1948, based on Phaca Nuttallii (Thomas Nuttall, 1786-1859) T. & G., Fl. N. Amer. 1: 343. 1838.—"Borders of woods near the sea, St. Barbara, California... Nuttall."—Holotypus, labeled by Nuttall "Phaca *inflata. U. California.," with Torrey’s annotation: "non Gillies. P. Nuttallii T. & G.," NY (herb. Torr.)! isotypus, BM!—Phaca inflata Nutt. ex T. & G., l.c., in syn. (non Gillies ex H. & A., 1832). Tragacantha Nuttallii (T. & G.) O. Kze., Rev. Gen. 941. 1891.

Phaca densifolia (densely leafy) Sm. in Ree’s Cyclop. 27, Phaca No. 9. 1814.— Gathered by Mr. Menzies in California."—Holotypus not located; presumed isotypi, labeled California, Menzies," K, or "Monterey, Menzies," BM!—A. densifolius (Sm.) Torr. in Pac. R. R. Rep. 7. 1856 ("densifolia"), quoad nom., non Lamk., 1783. A. Menziesii (Archibald Menzies, 1754-1842) Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. 6: 217. 1894, an illegitimate substitute for the preceding, the epithet "Nuttallii" being passed over as though preoccupied by A. Nuttallianus DC., 1825. A. Crotalariae var. Menziesii (Gray) Jones, Contrib. West. Bot. 10: 59. 1902. A. vestitus var. Menziesii (Gray) Jones, Rev. Astrag. 110. 1923.

Astragalus brevidentatus (with short calyx-teeth) C. H. Wright in Kew Bull. 1906, p. 200.—"Galapagos Islands. Without collector’s name, received from M. Decaisne, 1844."— Holotypus, K!—First identified as A. Menziesii by Johnston (in Jour. Arn. Arb. 19: 96. 1938): phototypus, GH!—The genus is otherwise unknown from the Galapagos.

Phaca unde (whence?—the type-locality under suspicion) Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24 : 346. 1929.—"Type collected at 'Walla Walla, Washington’ (but more likely southern California), C. L. Shear 5625 (U. S. Nat. Herb ...)."—Holotypus, dated July, 1899, unquestionably collected on the coast of California, US! isotypus (fragm.), NY!

At the edge of sea bluffs and on cliff ledges, where A. Nuttallii endures the full force of the prevailing on-shore winds, the average plant forms a mat of comparatively slender, repeatedly branching stems closely beset with shortened, softly woolly leaves, or hangs down in a dense curtain of foliage over the rock face. In sheltered spots facing inland, or in hollows among dunes, it becomes coarse and rankly leafy, with stout fistular stems either assurgent or clambering over scrub, and the leaves are often greener though still villousulous. In the robust plant the stipular sheaths low on the stems are ruptured early, and one must turn to the lateral branches to find stipules permanently connate. Although variation in density of vesture is often correlated with stature and rankness of growth, this is not always so, for densely villosulous and glabrate states of the same growth-habit occur commonly on the coast south of Pacific Grove.

The Nuttall milk-vetch was one of three species of Phaca collected on the coast of California by Nuttall and attributed by Torrey and Gray to Santa Barbara. Of the three, only P. trichopoda has been collected there subsequently, and it is the only one of which I have seen a specimen associated with a Nuttall label actually designating Santa Barbara specifically as the place of origin. Judging from its appearance, the typus of P. Nuttallii might well have been collected in Monterey County. No certainly authentic holotypus of P. densifolia has been seen, but the traditional interpretation is fully corroborated by Smith’s description of the numerous (16-20 pairs) leaflets woolly beneath and the "stipulas very broad ovate, smooth except for the point," a feature particularly characteristic of the Nuttall milk-vetch. It may have been collected while Menzies was in port at Monterey; the cited isotypi eliminate var. virgatus which he might have encountered at San Francisco. The typus of the absuredly named P. unde was certainly mislabeled; it represents a white-woolly form, but by no means an unusual one, of var. Nuttallii.