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Astragalus congdonii
Astragalus congdonii S. Watson
Congdon's Milkvetch
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s):
USDA Symbol: ASCO10
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Diffuse, usually rather coarse but sometimes quite slender, villous-villosulous nearly throughout with widely ascending, straight, incurved, or ± sinuous (and often some shorter, curly), white (and toward the inflorescence often partly fuscous) hairs up to 0.9-1.4 mm. long, the stems and herbage either equally greenish-cinereous, or the stems, and sometimes the young herbage, white-villous- tomentulose, the leaflets equally pubescent on both sides or more thinly so above; , striate, green or purplish- tinged, nearly always branched or spurred at 1-3 (4) nodes preceding the first peduncle, simple only when short and slender, floriferous upward from near or below the middle." (bibref: 1813).
"The species is very variable in stature, density of vesture, size of flower, and length of pod, but its essential structural features are uniform. The nearest relatives of A. Congdoni are A. agnicidus and A. umbraticus of the outer Coast Ranges; the relationship, however, is not really close. The copious, loose pubescence, the open, secund racemes of white flowers, and the long, narrow, hanging pods are distinctive." (bibref: 1813).
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Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several or numerous, decumbent and ascending from the pluricipital root- crown or shortly forking caudex, (1) 1.5-7.5 dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules thinly herbaceous, the lowest becoming papery, fragile and brownish in age, ovate-, triangular- or lance-acuminate or -caudate, 2-8 mm. long, more or less semiamplexicaul, pubescent dorsally, ciliate, the blades commonly squarrose; leaves spreading-recurved, (3) 4-12 (14) cm. long, the lowest shortly petioled, the upper ones sessile or nearly so, with (11) 17-35 (37) oblong-elliptic, ovate, obovate, or (especially in some lower leaves) suborbicular, truncate, retuse, retuse and mucronulate, rarely subacute, flat or loosely folded leaflets 3-15 mm. long, dorsally carinate by the midvein, diminishing upward along the rachis." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles either stout or (all or some upper ones) quite slender, (5) 7-18 (20) cm. long, surpassing the leaf; racemes loosely or at length remotely (8) 12-30 (35)-flowered, the flowers early spreading, ultimately declined, the axis elongating, (3.5) 5-20 cm. long in fruit; bracts submembranous, triangular- or narrowly lance-acuminate, 1.2-3.4 mm. long; pedicels at first ascending, straight or nearly so, 0.3-1.5 (2) mm. long, in fruit thickened, recurved, 0.5-2.2 (3) mm. long; bracteoles 0-2, minute when present; calyx 5.3-7.5 (8) mm. long, villosulous with fuscous, black, or partly white hairs, the subsymmetric to strongly oblique disc. 0.9-1.5 mm. deep, the membranous, pallid or purplish, broadly or narrowly campanulate tube 3.8-5 (5.3) mm. long, 2.5-4.2 mm. in diameter, the subulate or triangular-subulate teeth 1.1-2.5 (3) mm. long; petals white or whitish, immaculate, drying ochroleucous; banner recurved through about 45 degrees, broadly or narrowly oblanceolate, elliptic-oblanceolate, or rhombic-elliptic, shallowly or deeply notched, 10.4-15.6 (16.6) mm. long, 4.8-7 mm. wide; wings (shorter or rarely a trifle longer) 9-15 (16.2) mm. long, the claws 3.6-6.7 (7) mm., the linear-oblong or oblanceolate, obtuse, truncate-erose, or obliquely emarginate, slightly incurved blades 6.4-10 (10.4) mm. long, 2-3.4 (3.8) mm. wide; keel 7.4-12.7 mm. long, the claws 3.5-6.8 mm., the half-obovate blades 4.5-6.8 mm. long, 2.4-3.6 mm. wide, incurved through 90-95 degrees to the bluntly deltoid apex; anthers (0.45) 0.5-0.75 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod declined, the straight, glabrous or puberulent stipe 1-2.5 mm. long, concealed by the marcescent calyx, the body Unear in outline, nearly straight to falcately incurved through about 1/3 -circle, (1.5) 2-3.5 cm. long, 2.3-3.2 mm. in diameter, abruptly cuneate at base, contracted distally into a short, triangular, cuspidate, unilocular beak, otherwise compressed-triquetrous, with low-convex lateral and slightly narrower, deeply but narrowly grooved dorsal faces, carinate ventrally by the prominent suture, the lateral angles obtuse, the thinly fleshy, green or purple-tinged valves becoming stiffly papery, stramineous, finely cross-reticulate, densely to quite thinly strigulose-villosulous with subap- pressed, ascending and nearly straight, or looser and sinuous hairs, the complete or nearly complete septum 1-2 mm. wide; ovules (17) 23-29; seeds purplish- or chestnut-brown, or greenish, often purple-speckled, pitted, wrinkled, or both, scarcely lustrous, 2.2-3 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: White , YellowBloom Time: Mar , Apr , May , Jun
Bloom Notes: "Petals white or whitish, immaculate, drying ochroleucous." (bibref: 1813).
Distribution
USA: CANative Distribution: "Uncommon, scattered within and slightly below the digger pine belt in the Sierra Nevada foothills from the Mokelumne south to the Tule River, Amador to Tulare County, California." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Open brushy banks, canyon sides, and road cuts, commonly on and perhaps confined to metamorphic, sometimes partly serpentinized bedrock, 550-2000 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 congdonii in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Astragalus congdonii in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus congdonii
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus