Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems (reportedly several) erect or stiffly ascending, 5-6.5 dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules sub- membranous early becoming papery-scarious, 2.5-6 mm. long, dimorphic, the lowest largest, connate into a closely amplexicaul, bidentate, at length fragile and irregularly ruptured or circumscissile sheath, the median and upper ones progressively narrower, lanceolate or triangular-acuminate, very briefly connate at base or semiamplexicaul and free; leaves (2.5) 3.5-10 cm. long, the lowest shortly petioled, the rest subsessile, with (13) 15-25 ovate to lance- or oblong-elliptic, obtuse and mucronulate or subemarginate, flat leaflets (2) 3-12 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles erect or incurved-ascending, 3.5-6 cm. long, a little longer or shorter than the leaf; racemes at first rather closely, at length loosely (15) 20-45-flowered, the flowers nodding, the axis a little elongating, 2.5-6.5 cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous, narrowly ovate to lance-acuminate, 1.2-2.5 mm. long; pedicels ascending, at length arched outward or in age straight and spreading, at anthesis 1-1.3 mm., in fruit scarcely thickened, 1.2-1.5 mm. long; bracteoles 0-2, minute when present; calyx 4.3-5.1 mm. long, thinly strigulose with black or mixed black and white hairs, the oblique disc 0.9-1.5 mm. deep, the pallid, campanulate tube 3.3-4 mm. long, 2.4-2.8 mm. in diameter, the triangular-subulate teeth 0.8-1.3 mm. long, the ventral pair commonly much shorter and often broader than the rest, the orifice oblique, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals apparently ochroleucous, described as "bright yellow"; banner gently recurved through 4550 degrees, rhombic-elliptic or oblanceolate, shallowly notched, 9.6-10 mm. long, 3.4 4.8 mm. wide; wings 8.7-9.7 mm. long, the claws 3.5-4 mm., the narrowly elliptic or lance-elliptic, obtuse or erose, gently incurved blades 6-6.4 mm. long, 1.8-2.4 mm. wide; keel 6.4-7.6 mm. long, the claws 3-4 mm., the half-obovate blades 3.7-4.2 mm. long, 1.9-2.3 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 90 degrees to the bluntly deltoid apex; anthers 0.4-0.5 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod pendulous, stipitate, the straight, slender, glabrous stipe 5-6 (or, ex char. "8-10") mm. long, the body obliquely half-oblance-ellipsoid, about 1.5 cm. long and 4.5 mm. in diameter, slightly incurved, cuneate at base, abruptly contracted at apex into a minute cusp, laterally compressed and bluntly trigonous, carinate ventrally by the prominent suture, shallowly and openly sulcate dorsally, the thinly papery valves sparsely strigulose with black or white and a few intermingled black hairs, inflexed as a hyaline septum 0.4 mm. wide; ovules 6-10; dehiscence and seeds unknown." (bibref: 1813).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Yellow
Bloom Time: Jul , Aug , Sep
Bloom Notes: "Petals apparently ochroleucous, described as "bright yellow". (bibref: 1813).

Distribution

USA: NM
Native Distribution: "Local and apparently rare, known only from the White and Sacramento Mountains, Otero County, New Mexico." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Openings in yellow pine forest, 6500—7800 feet." (bibref: 1813).

Bibliography

Bibref 1813 - Atlas of North American Astragalus (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.

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Additional resources

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