Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several or numerous, erect and ascending (or becoming diffuse late in the year), stout, fistular, striate, 7-15 dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules submembranous becoming papery, 3-10 mm. long, deltoid- or lance-acuminate or -caudate, or the uppermost ones linear-lanceolate, pubescent dorsally, the blades deflexed, amplexicaul-decurrent around ?- 1/2 the stems; leaves (3) 4-16 cm. long, the lowest shortly petioled, the rest subsessile, with 25-33 oblong-ovate or -obovate, or lance-elliptic, acute, obtuse and mucronulate, or apiculate, flat or loosely folded leaflets 3-20 mm. long, at least in age carinate dorsally by the midrib." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles spreading or incurved-ascending, 2.5-9 cm. long, much shorter than the leaf; racemes densely 35-60-flowered, narrowly cylindric or oblong, 15-20 mm. in diameter at full anthesis, sometimes interrupted at base, the flowers deflexed and retrorsely imbricated, the axis slightly elongating, 3.5-10 (14) cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous, narrowly lance-acuminate or -caudate, 2.5-5 mm. long, deflexed; pedicels ascending and arched outward, at anthesis 0.5-0.7 mm., in fruit thickened, (0.7) 1-1.5 mm. long; bracteoles 0; calyx 6.2-8.1 mm. long, villous- villosulous with white or partly with fuscous or black hairs, the strongly oblique, shallow disc 0.5-0.9 mm. deep, the ovoid-campanulate tube 3.3-4.1 mm. long, 3-3.8 mm. in diameter, distended dorsally at base but scarcely gibbous, the firmer, narrowly lance-acuminate or -caudate teeth 2.6-5 (6) mm. long, the whole becoming turgid, a little accrescent, papery-membranous, investing (ruptured or not) the base of the fruit; petals dull pinkish-purple, marcescent; banner oblanceolate or obovate-elliptic, shallowly emarginate or subentire, 9.1-11.7 mm. long, 4.5-5.5 mm. wide; wings 7.2-10 mm. long, the claws 3.3-4.6 mm., the obliquely elliptic or linear-oblanceolate, distally incurved blades 5.6-6.6 mm. long, 2-2.3 mm. wide; keel 6.4-8.5 mm. long, the claws 3.3-4.3 mm., the half-obovate blades 3-7-4.5 mm. long, 2.2-2.5 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 95-100 degrees to the rounded apex; anthers 0.5-0.6 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod deflexed, deciduous from an incipient gynophore 0.5-0.7 mm. long, oblong or plumply lance-oblong in outline, nearly straight to gently incurved, 6.5-9 mm. long, (2.5) 3-4 mm. in diameter, obtuse or commonly retuse at base, abruptly contracted distally into an erect or slightly in- or decurved, subulate beak 1-1.5 mm. long, otherwise bluntly triquetrous, keeled ventrally by the prominent, thick suture, deeply grooved dorsally, the lateral angles broadly rounded, the green, thinly fleshy, villous or villous-tomentulose valves becoming stramineous, firmly papery, transversely reticulate beneath the vesture, inflexed through the proximal 1/2-? of the pod-body as a complete or subcomplete septum 1-1.3 mm. wide; seeds dark brown, pitted or wrinkled but somewhat lustrous, 1.4-2 mm. lon." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink , Purple
Bloom Time: Mar , Apr , May , Jun , Jul
Bloom Notes: "Petals dull pinkish-purple, marcescent." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: CA
Native Distribution: "Rare and local but in good years forming considerable colonies, known only from some seven stations (some now doubtless destroyed or threatened) in the foothills surrounding the plain of Los Angeles in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, southern California: south end of Santa Monica Mountains back from the immediate coastal bluffs; Sierra Madre near Monrovia; Sierra Peak, Santa Ana Mountains." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Disturbed places and natural openings in chaparral, sometimes locally abundant on fire breaks, in stiff gravelly clay soils overlying granite or sandstone, 50-1500 feet." (bibref: 1814).

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Threatened & Endangered Status

USFWS Species Profile: Q05E
Status: Endangered
Historic Range: U.S.A. (CA)
Critical Habitat: 17.96(a)
Special Rules: N/A
This information is derived from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serrvice Environmental Conservation Online System.

Bibliography

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

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Additional resources

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