Astragalus Whitneyi var. siskiyouensis

  • Title

    Astragalus Whitneyi var. siskiyouensis

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus whitneyi var. siskiyouensis (Rydb.) Barneby

  • Description

    87.c Astragalus Whitneyi var. siskiyouensis

    Closely resembling var. Whitneyi, averaging a little taller, the stems (1) 1.5-3 (4) dm. long; herbage loosely strigulose but in variable amounts, the leaflets glabrous to densely pubescent above, green or canescent, the longest hairs up to 0.4-0.6 (0.7) mm. long; leaves 3-9 cm. long, the 9-17 (19) well-separated, narrow leaflets 4—18 (21) mm. long; racemes loosely 4—16-flowered, the axis (2) 3—7 cm. long in fruit; calyx 4.6—5.6 (6) mm. long, the tube 3.8—4.7 mm long, 2.3—3.5 mm. in diameter, the teeth 0.5—1.5 (1.7) mm. long; petals ochroleucous, immaculate; banner 9.5-13.5 mm. long, (5.7) 6.4-8 (9) mm. wide; wings (0-1.5 mm. shorter than the banner) 9-10.4 (13.5) mm. long, the claws 3.9-5.1 (5.8) mm., the blades 5.4—6 (7) mm. long, 1.9—3 mm. wide; keel (0.3-3 mm. shorter than the banner) 8.2-10.8 (12) mm. long, the claws 4.2-5.4 (6) mm., the blades 4.2-5.8 (6.8) mm. long, 2.4-3.1 mm. wide; pod glabrous, the stipe 3-6 mm. long, the body (1.5) 2.5-5 (6) cm. long, (0.8) 1-2.2 (when pressed up to 2.5) cm. in diameter; ovules (13) 15-22.—Collections: 23 (ii); representative: W. H. Baker 6222 (ID, NY, RSA, WS); Heller 12,487 (CAS, NY, WIS, WS); Eastwood & Howell 5019 (CAS); Barneby 11,536 (CAS, NY, RSA), 11,555 (CAS, NY, RSA).

    Open gravelly or rocky slopes and crests, usually in pine forest but ascending into fir forest, on volcanic or metamorphic bedrock but especially common and abundant on serpentine, (2600) 4100—8800 feet, rather frequent in the inner North Coast Ranges of California from the south foothills of the Trinity Alps to the Siskiyou Mountains, extending just north into Jackson County, Oregon, and east to the north slope of Mt. Shasta; also (atypically) east along the Pit River in Shasta County, where apparently passing into var. confusus.—Map No. 32.—June to August.

    Astragalus Whitneyi var. siskiyouensis (Rydb.) Barneby in El Aliso 2: 205. 1950, based on Phaca siskiyouensis (of the Siskiyou Mountains) Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24 : 340. 1929.—"Type collected on Mt. Eddy, Siskiyou County, California. August 30, 1912, Alice Eastwood 2006... ’’—Holotypus, NY! isotypi, CAS, US!—Astragalus siskiyouensis (Rydb.) J. W. Thomps. in Leafl. West. Bot. 1: 212. 1936. A. Hookerianus var. siskiyouensis (Rydb.) Peck, Man. Ore. 446. 1940 & in Madrono 6: 134. 1941. A. Whitneyi subsp. siskiyouensis (Rydb.) Abrams, 111. Fl. Pac. St. 2: 583. 1944.

    The balloon milk-vetch of the North Coast Ranges, var. siskiyouensis, is as variable in pubescence as var. Whitneyi, silvery and green forms being known to occur in the same range of mountains although not in the same colony of plants. The supposition (Barneby, 1950, p. 205) that the fresh petals were purplish and the color fugacious in drying was mistaken; fresh flowers, seen since in the Trinity Alps and Scott Mountains, were ochroleucous and immaculate. This may be true of var. siskiyouensis everywhere. The variety is otherwise only poorly distinguished from var. Whitneyi by its ordinarily taller stems and longer pods disposed in looser and longer racemes. Larger-flowered plants from the Pit River Valley in Shasta County, which I mentioned in my revision (1950, l.c.), are truly purple-flowered and intermediate between var. siskiyouensis and var. confusus, from which the glabrous pods alone separate them. The variety was first collected in 1876, on Scott Mountain, by E. L. Greene.