Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems erect or ascending in well-furnished clumps, 5-12 dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules scarious, pallid, or stramineous, 2-14 mm. long, dimorphic, the lowest amplexicaul and connate through half their length or more into a bidentate sheath (this often ruptured in age by expansion of the stem), the median and upper ones shorter, deltoid-acuminate from a broad, semiamplexicaul base, fragile and often deciduous in age, all thinly pubescent dorsally; leaves (5) 7-17 (20) cm. long, shortly petioled or the uppermost subsessile, with rather stiff, commonly recurving rachis and (17) 21-35 linear, linear-oblong, -elliptic, -lanceolate, or -oblanceolate, obtuse and mucronulate or shallowly emarginate, flat or loosely involute, dorsally carinate leaflets (3) 6-26 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles stiffly erect, 6-24 cm. long, the lower ones surpassing, the uppermost about equaling the leaf; racemes loosely 15-45-flowered, the flowers early nodding, the axis much elongating, (5) 7-17 cm. long in fruit; bracts papery-scarious, narrowly triangular to linear-lanceolate, 1.5-4 mm. long, in age fragile and often deciduous; pedicels densely white-silky-pilosulous, at anthesis strongly arched or distally bent outward and downward, 1.2-2.2 mm. long, in fruit thickened, erect or narrowly ascending, straight or nearly so, 3.5-5 mm. long; bracteoles 0-2, minute when present; calyx (6.5) 8-11.4 mm. long, densely white-silky-strigulose, the slightly to strongly oblique disc 1.2-2 mm. deep, the deeply campanulate, basally turbinate or obliquely truncate tube 5-7.2 mm. long, 3-4.3 mm. in diameter, the lance-subulate teeth (1.5) 2-4.2 mm. long, the whole becoming papery, persistent unruptured; petals ochroleucous, immaculate, little graduated; banner very gently recurved distally but the distal margins abruptly folded back in late anthesis, broadly spat- ulate, entire or shallowly emarginate, 12.6-17.6 mm. long, 7-9 mm. wide; wings (0.2 mm. longer to 1.2 mm. shorter) 12.8-16.4 mm. long, the claws 7-9.7 mm., the narrowly oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse, erose-undulate, or obscurely emarginate, nearly straight blades 6.5-8.2 mm. long, 2.3-3.4 mm. wide; keel 11.5-14.7 mm. long, the claws 7-9.5 mm., the half-obovate blades 5-6.1 mm. long, 2.6-3.3 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 90-95 degrees to the bluntly deltoid apex; anthers 0.65-0.9 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod loosely spreading or pendulous, stipitate, the slender, downwardly or sigmoidally arching stipe 1.4-4 cm. long, the very obliquely ovoid- ellipsoid or half-ovoid, bladdery-inflated body (2) 2.5-4.3 cm. long, 1.3-1.8 (or when pressed seemingly up to 2) cm. in diameter, broadly to narrowly cuneate at base, contracted distally into a deltoid or triangular-acuminate, laterally flattened beak 4-14 mm. long, the body a trifle compressed laterally, esculate, the sutures filiform, the ventral one slightly convex, straight, or gently concave- arcuate, the dorsal one gibbous-convex, the thin, pale green, sparsely strigulose valves becoming papery, stramineous, lustrous, finely reticulate, inflexed as a rudimentary septum 0.1-0.3 mm. wide, the funicular flange (at the middle of the pod) 1.5-2.5 mm. wide; dehiscence apical, through the beak; ovules (16) 18-30; seeds ochraceous or light brown, smooth but dull, 2.1-2.8 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Yellow
Bloom Time: Apr , May , Jun
Bloom Notes: "Petals ochroleucous, immaculate. April to July, occasionally again in fall." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: CA
Native Distribution: "Common and locally plentiful in the inner South Coast Ranges of California and adjoining Great Valley, from western Kern County and head of Salinas Valley in San Luis Obispo County north through the hill-country east of San Francisco Bay to Solano County." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Dry grassy hills, fields, roadside banks, and rolling plains, 200—2500 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 asymmetricus in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus asymmetricus in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus asymmetricus