Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis

  • Title

    Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis

  • Authors

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis M.E.Jones

  • Description

    289b. Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis

    Closely resembling var. lentiginosus, the decumbent or prostrate stems slender, 0.5-3 dm. long; leaflets 13-19, oval, elliptic-oblanceolate, or obovate, subacute, truncate and mucronulate, or retuse, thin-textured, 5-15 mm. long; peduncles usually very slender, 1.5-6 (8) cm. long; racemes 10-18-flowered, the axis 1.5-4 (5) cm. long in fruit; calyx 4.2-7 (8.4) mm., the tube 2.7-4.2 (5.3) mm., the teeth 1.5-3.2 mm. long; petals whitish or obscurely lavender-tinged; banner 8.5-12.2 (13.5) mm. long; wings 7.4-9.5 (11.5) mm., the blades 4.8-6.2 mm. long; keel 6.3-8.2 (11) mm., the blades (3.2) 3.5-5 (5.5) mm. long; pod narrowly to broadly ovoid-acuminate, usually much inflated, 8-20 (25) mm. long, 4.5-12 (15) mm. in diameter, the incurved, triangular-acuminate, unilocular beak 3-10 mm. long, the papery, usually but not always mottled, lustrous valves glabrous; ovules (7) 16-25.—Collections: 11 (i); representative: Heller 9250 (NY); Holmgren 1815 (NY); Raven 11,490 (NY); Maguire & Holmgren 21,875 (NY, UTC, WTU ); Ripley & Barneby 9315 (CAS, RSA).

    Open rocky crests, mountain meadows, brushy hillsides, mostly on limestone or on limey clay soils, ascending from the upper edge of the sagebrush zone to near timber line, 7000-11,000 feet, locally plentiful in scattered stations in the Ruby, White Pine, and Grant Ranges in Elko, White Pine, and northeastern Nye Counties, south to Morey Peak in Lincoln County, Nevada, and in the Deep Creek Range, western Juab County, Utah.—Map No. 130.—June to August.

    Astragalus lentiginosus var. scorpionis (of the scorpion, the pod likened to the talonshaped, terminal segment of the tail) Jones, Rev. Astrag. 124, Pl. 24. 1923. Morey Peak Nevada No. 6365 Purpus ... ’’—Holotypus, POM!—The paratypi mentioned by Jones = var. lentiginosus.—Cystium scorpionis (Jones) Rydb. in N. Amer. Fl. 24: 411. 1911.

    Astragalus lentiginosus var. tremuletorum (of aspen groves) Barneby in Leafl. West. Bot. 4: 85, Pl. I, figs. 13-17. 1945.—"Meadow, 8500 ft., upper Lamoille Canyon, Elko Co., Nevada, P. A. Munz No. 16324."—Holotypus, collected August 1, 1940, POM!

    The var. scorpionis is very closely related to var. lentiginosus, from which it differs chiefly in the glabrous fruit. The var. lentiginosus is a lowland plant confined to basalt bedrock, the present variety is montane and calciphile. At the time that var. tremuletorum was described, very little material of A. lentiginosus from the mountains of Nevada was available for comparison; consequently I made several blunders in interpreting the superficially similar phases of var. scorpionis and var. toyabensis. The collection from the Toiyabe Mountains originally referred to var. tremuletorum is in reality var. toyabensis, as would be expected from the locality. The two varieties native to the mountains of Nevada vary equally in stature according to site and elevation, and both present phases of the pod which are little inflated and of the "scorpionis" type, shaped, that is, like the stinging segment of a scorpion s tail. The calcifuge var. toyabensis differs from var. scorpionis chiefly in its larger, more richly colored flowers.