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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems 3-several from the crown of a slender taproot, ascending, or decumbent and radiating with ascending tips, (0.5) 1-3.5 (4.5) dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules ovate or deltoid, 1.5-4.5 mm. long, the lowest early becoming papery, the rest herbaceous, semi- or the lowest a little more than semiamplexicaul, glabrous dorsally, thinly ciliate; leaves (2) 2.5-7.5 cm. long, the lowest petioled, the rest subsessile, with (11) 13-19 narrowly to broadly obovate-cuneate or obcordate, retuse, flat leaflets 3-10 (13) mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles erect or incurved-ascending, (3) 4-9 (11) cm. long, mostly surpassing the leaf; racemes rather closely 7-20 (25)-flowered, the subcontiguous flowers early spreading, declined in age, the axis little elongating, 0.7-2.5 (3.5) cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous, ovate-acuminate or triangular, 0.8-2 mm. long, spreading or reflexed in fruit; pedicels slender, at anthesis ascending, 0.5-0.8 mm. long, in fruit arched outward, a trifle thickened, 0.7-1.5 mm. long, persistent; bracteoles 0; calyx (2.7) 3-4.1 mm. long, strigulose with either white or black hairs, the oblique disc 0.40.6 (0.7) mm. deep, the shallowly campanulate, often purplish tube 1.6-2.4 mm. long, 1.6-2 mm. in diameter, the subulate teeth 1.1-1.8 mm. long, the orifice oblique, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals whitish, distally suffused with lilac, or bicolored, the banner then broadly purple-margined, the wing-tips white, the keel-tip always purple; banner recurved through about 45 degrees, sometimes further in late anthesis, obovate-cuneate, deeply or shallowly notched, (5.4) 6.7-8 mm. long, (3.7) 4.5-5.6 mm. wide; wings (5) 5.5-7.2 mm. long, the claws 1.7-2.3 mm., the oblong-oblanceolate blades (3.8) 4.3-5.6 mm. long, 1.3-2.4 (2.7) mm. wide, gently incurved through the distal half to the truncate or shallowly emarginate apex; keel 4.5-5.9 mm. long, the claws 1.9-2.6 mm., the obliquely triangular blades 3-4 mm. long, 1.7-2.1 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 95-105 degrees to the triangular, acute or subacute, nearly always slightly porrect apex; anthers 0.25-0.4 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod reflexed, sessile but elevated out of the calyx on a slender, often decurved, stipelike gynophore 1.5-2.3 mm. long, the body very strongly obcompressed, peltiform, subcircular in dorsiventral view or often a little wider than long, 3.5-7 mm. long, 4.5-7.5 (9) mm. in diameter, truncate or shallowly retuse at either or both ends, contracted at apex into a conic-subulate, cusplike, more or less incurved beak 0.7-1 mm. long, straight or the whole gendy incurved (the ventral face then depressed in the middle and shallowly bowlshaped), the rather firm, green or purple-tinged, glabrous valves becoming stiffly papery, brownish or stramineous, somewhat lustrous, prominently cross-reticulate and often rugulose on the narrow but obtuse lateral angles, inflexed as a narrow but complete septum 0.5-0.8 mm. wide; dehiscence tardy, after falling, the pod separating into two halves along both sutures and through the septum; ovules 4, seeds brown or olivaceous, smooth, somewhat lustrous, 2.3-3.2 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Purple , Violet
Bloom Time: Feb , Mar , Apr
Bloom Notes: "Petals whitish, distally suffused with lilac, or bicolored, the banner then broadly purple-margined, the wing-tips white, the keel-tip always purple." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: TX
Native Distribution: "Widespread and locally plentiful in favorable seasons on the Gulf Coastal Plain of southern Texas in the drainage of the San Antonio and Nueces Rivers and the lower Rio Grande, extending just south into adjoining Tamaulipas." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Stony clay flats and sandy prairies, sometimes abundant and of weedy occurrence in disturbed soil along highways, 10-800 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 brazoensis in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus brazoensis in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus brazoensis