Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems up to 5 cm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules 4-6 mm. long, pallid, submembranous, deltoid- or lance-acuminate, semiamplexicaul-decurrent, free; leaves 2-7 cm. long, petioled, with (7) 11-15 obovate, obovate-cuneate, or subrhombic, obtuse leaflets 4-10 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles 1.5-3 cm. long, arcuate-recurved in fruit; racemes loosely but shortly 3-7-flowered, the flowers ascending, the axis little elongating, 0.5-2.5 cm. long in fruit; bracts lanceolate or ovate-acuminate, 2.5-4.5 mm. long; pedicels ascending, at anthesis 1.5-2.5 mm., in fruit a little thickened, 2-4 mm. long, persistent; bracteoles 0-2; calyx 11-13 mm. long, densely strigose-strigulose with white and sometimes a few shorter black hairs, the disc 1.3-2.1 mm. deep, the cylindric tube obliquely obconic-attenuate at base, 9-10.5 mm. long, 3.3-4.3 mm. in diameter, the subulate teeth 1.5-3 mm. long, the orifice oblique; petals pink-purple, little but regularly graduated; banner gently recurved through about 40 degrees, oblanceolate or spatulate, 18.8-21 mm. long, 8-12 mm. wide; wings 18.5-20.5 mm. long, the claws 10.5-13.5 mm., the oblong or lance-oblong, obtuse, straight blades 8.2-9 mm. long, 2.5-3.2 mm. wide; keel 16.5-18.5 mm. long, the claws 10.7-13.5 mm., the half-obovate blades 6-7 mm. long, 2.8-3.5 mm. wide, incurved through 70-80 to the blunt apex; anthers 0.6-0.85 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod ascending or loosely spreading (humistrate), sessile, deciduous, obliquely globose, oblong-globose or broadly obovoid, (1) 1.3-1.8 cm. long, 8-13 mm. in diameter, turgid or moderately inflated, contracted at base into a short or obscure, obconic neck, minutely cuspidate at apex, straight or a trifle incurved, obcompressed and shallowly sulcate ventrally, flattened or rounded dorsally, the ventral suture either straight or shallowly concave in profile, the dorsal one convex throughout, often prominent and undulate, the fleshy valves becoming spongy and 0.3-0.4 mm. thick at maturity, then stramineous, irregularly rugulose but not (or vestigially) reticulate, finely strigulose with sinuous white hairs, inflexed as a complete septum 3-6 mm. wide; ovules 28-40; seeds soot-black, nearly smooth, dull, 2-2.4 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Yellow , Purple
Bloom Time: May , Jun , Jul
Bloom Notes: "Petals pink-purple." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: CO
Native Distribution: "Known only from the valley of the Gunnison River for a distance of ± 40 miles upstream from the east portals of the Black Canyon, Gunnison County (the type-station near Pueblo almost certainly an error), Colorado." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Dry gravelly flats and hillsides, in sandy clay soils overlying granitic bedrock, usually among or sheltering under low sagebrush, 7500-7800 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 anisus in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus anisus in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus anisus