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Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius
Astragalus ceramicus Sheldon var. filifolius (A. Gray) F.J. Herm.
Painted Milkvetch
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s): Astragalus longifolius, Phaca longifolia
USDA Symbol: ASCEF
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Slender, wiry, of distinctive aspect, with root-crown deeply buried except when accidentally brought near the surface or even exposed by shifting of mobile dunes, densely strigulose with fine, straight, appressed or narrowly ascending, basifixed or dolabriform hairs up to (0.2) 0.3-1.1 mm. long, the stems and sparse herbage ashen or silvery-canescent; stems few, in most collected specimens appearing solitary, arising directly from the root-crown in young plants, or subsequently from simple or sparingly branched, very slender, widely creeping rhizome-like caudex-branches, subterranean for a space of 3—40 cm. where the distant nodes are marked by short, scarious stipule-sheaths and sometimes by filiform adventitious roots, the aerial part decumbent or ascending, 3—30 (40) cm. long, simple or divaricately few-branched on emergence, commonly zigzag distally." (bibref: 1813).
"The A. c. var. filifolius is especially common on the sandhills of western Nebraska. The pod in this region is very large, up to 5 cm. long and proportionately swollen; elsewhere pods over 4 cm. long are rarely met with, but in other respects the plants of the prairie states do not vary greatly. All leaves, except a few of the lowest, are reduced to the unadorned rachis which may be truly filiform or a little dilated distally in the form of a linear leaflet. Thus the general aspect of the average plant is leafless and broomlike; the stems are weak and pliant, offering little resistance to the wind. Mention has been made already of a relatively leafy variant with pods of moderate size found on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains in southern Colorado at elevations near 8000 feet. ." (bibref: 1813).
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Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems few, in most collected specimens appearing solitary, arising directly from the root-crown in young plants, or subsequently from simple or sparingly branched, very slender, widely creeping rhizome-like caudex-branches, subterranean for a space of 3â
Leaf: "Stipules 1.59 mm. long, somewhat dimorphic, those at the first exposed nodes connate into a brown, firmly chartaceous, or pallid, subscarious, truncate or bidentate sheath, the longer upper ones herbaceous, connate through half their length or at base only, with deltoid-acuminate or lanceolate, erect, spreading, or rarely deflexed blades; leaves 2.5-17 cm. long, commonly all reduced to the filiform rachis, only some lower leaves with 1-2 (3) pairs of lateral leaflets;." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles varicate and incurved, (0.7) 1.5-7.5 cm. long; racemes loosely 2-7-flowered, the flowers at first ascending, ultimately spreading and declined, the axis 1-4.5 (5.5) cm. long in fruit; bracts submembranous, ovate or lanceolate, (0.6) 1-2.2 (2.5) mm. long; pedicels at anthesis slender, ascending, 0.7-2.5 mm. long, in fruit spreading or arched outward, commonly twisted, scarcely thickened, 1.2-3.1 mm. long; bracteoles commonly 0, minute when present, calyx (3.7) 4-6 mm. long, strigulose like the herbage with white and often some shorter black hairs, the subsymmetric disc 0.5-1 mm. deep, the campanulate tube (2.3) 2.5-3.5 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm. in diameter, the subulate teeth (1.4) 1.6-3 mm. long, the whole becoming papery, marcescent, usually unruptured; petals whitish or flesh-pink, sometimes veined or suffused with lavender, rarely dull purple throughout; banner abruptly recurved through about 90 degrees, 7.4-10.8 mm. long, 6.2-8.5 mm. wide, the broadly cuneate-flabellate claw expanded into a broadly obovate, suborbicular, or reniform, shallowly notched blade 6-8.5 mm. wide; wings 6.9-10.6 mm. long, the claws 2.4-3.4 mm., the blades 4.6-8.2 mm. long, 2.3-4 mm. wide; keel 7-9.1 mm. long, the claws 2.5-3.4 mm., the blades 4.5-6.1 mm. long, 2.2-2.8 mm. wide." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod pendulous, stipitate or rarely sessile, the stipe 1.5-3 mm. long, the body subsymmetrically ellipsoid, ovoid, or subglobose, bladdery-inflated, (1.2) 1.5-5 cm. long, (5) 6-26 mm. in diameter, cuneate or rounded at either or both ends, shortly cuspidate or obscurely conic-beaked at apex, subterete or (when greatly inflated) shallowly and openly sulcate ventrally, the sutures both filiform and subequally convex, the thin, glabrous, brightly red- or purple-mottled valves becoming papery, reticulate, ultimately purplish-brown, lustrous, not inflexed, the funicular flange obsolete or up to 0.4 mm. wide; ovules 12-29; seeds brown, nearly smooth or minutely pitted, dull, (2.1) 2.4-3.1 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: White , Pink , Purple , VioletBloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Jul
Bloom Notes: "Petals whitish or flesh-pink, sometimes veined or suffused with lavender, rarely dull purple throughout." (bibref: 1813).
Distribution
USA: CO , KS , MT , ND , NE , NM , OK , SD , TX , WYNative Distribution: "Locally plentiful in scattered stations over the higher Great Plains from western North Dakota and eastern Montana south through eastern Wyoming and Nebraska to the Arkansas Valley in Colorado and western Kansas, and south just into the Oklahoma Panhandle; in Colorado extending west up the Arkansas into Chaffee County and to San Luis Valley in Saguache County, there reaching 8300 feet." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Dunes and sandy hollows in rolling plains, sometimes in sandy fields or on sand bars of intermittent streams, mostly below 7000 feet." (bibref: 1813).
Bibliography
Bibref 1813 - Atlas of North American Astragalus (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.Search More Titles in Bibliography
Additional resources
USDA: Find Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus ceramicus var. filifolius
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus