Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual , Perennial , Biennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several or many, ascending and radiating from the shortly forking root-crown to form low, rounded clumps, the principal ones (1) 1.5-5 dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules thinly herbaceous or submembranous, the lowest early becoming papery, triangular or ovate-acuminate, 1.5-7 mm. long, decurrent around half, or the lowest around the whole stem's circumference, the margins of the latter ordinarily free, rarely very shortly and obscurely connate (but then more strongly adnate than connate); leaves 4-10 mm. long, the uppermost either shortly petioled or subsessile, with (9) 11-21 oblong-obovate, oblanceolate and obtuse or retuse, or (especially in some upper leaves) elliptic or narrowly oblong-elliptic and either obtuse and mucronulate or acute, flat or loosely folded leaflets (4) 6-21 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles incurved-ascending, 3-9 (11) cm. long, commonly shorter, rarely surpassing the leaf; racemes loosely 10-20 (30)-flowered, the flowers ascending at anthesis, the axis (1.5) 3.5-12 cm. long in fruit; bracts submembranous, pallid or purplish, ovate or lanceolate, 1.2-2.5 mm. long; pedicels at anthesis ascending, straight, 1-2 mm. long, in fruit arched outward, a trifle thickened, 2-4 mm. long, persistent; bracteoles 2, often minute, attached at or below base of the calyx; calyx (3.6) 4.1-5.7 mm. long, strigulose with white or mixed black and white hairs, the subsymmetric disc 0.5-1.1 mm. deep, the campanulate or turbinate-campanulate tube 2.4-3.5 mm. long, 1.9-3.6 mm. in diameter, the lance-subulate teeth (1.1) 1.6-2.5 mm. long, the ventral pair often longest, the whole becoming papery-scarious, ruptured, marcescent; petals pink- or reddish-purple, drying violet; banner recurved through about 50 degrees, broadly ovate -cuneate or obcordate, 7.2-9.4 mm. long, (4.9) 5.5-7.2 mm. wide; wings 6.6-8.3 mm. long, the claws 2.3-3.1 mm., the obliquely oblong-obovate, broadly obtuse or undulate-erose blades 4.7-5.7 mm. long, 22-2.1 mm. wide, both incurved but the left one more abruptly and further than the right; keel 6.2-7.5 mm. long, the claws 2.5-3.2 mm., the obliquely triangular blades 3.8-4.5 mm. long, 2.1-2.5 mm. wide, incurved through about 95 degrees to the blunt or subacute, slightly porrect apex; anthers 0.45-0.55 (0.6) mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod loosely spreading or declined, those of some outer stems often humistrate and ascending, sessile on the slightly elevated receptacle and readily deciduous, very obliquely ellipsoid or half-ellipsoid, bladdery-inflated, (2) 2.5-4 (4.5) cm. long, 1-1.7 (or when pressed apparently to 2) cm. in diameter, obconic at base, contracted about 3-6 mm. below the apex into a triangular, compressed, slightly incurved beak, the ventral suture straight or nearly so, the dorsal one strongly convex, the thin, pale green or purple-cheeked, finely strigulose valves becoming papery-diaphanous, stramineous, lustrous, delicately cross-reticulate, not inflexed, the funicular flange 0.4-0.8 mm. wide; dehiscence apical, after falling; ovules (10) 14-21; seeds brown, ocher- or greenish-brown, sometimes purple-speckled, nearly smooth or irregularly pitted, dull, 2.6-3.2 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Red , Pink , Purple , Violet
Bloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Jul
Bloom Notes: "Petals pink- or reddish-purple, drying violet. April to July, sometimes again in fall." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: AZ , CA , CO , NM , TX
Native Distribution: "Common and locally abundant nearly throughout the Gila River drainage system in central and southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, extending sparingly northwest to the Big Williams River in Yavapai County, north in New Mexico to Acomita in Valencia County, and east across the Black Range to the lower Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and extreme western Trans-Pecos Texas; to be expected in adjoining Mexico." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Plains, foothills, and open valleys, on light sandy or gravelly soils of various origin and composition but apparently not or seldom on calcareous bedrock, in desert-grassland, scattered scrub-oak or juniper forest, rarely on dunes, (reportedly 1500) 2000-6200, exceptionally up to 7500 feet." (bibref: 1814).

Bibliography

Bibref 1814 - Atlas of North American Astragalus Volume 2 (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.

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Additional resources

USDA: Find Astragalus allochrous in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus allochrous in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus allochrous