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Astragalus columbianus
Astragalus columbianus Barneby
Columbia Milkvetch
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s):
USDA Symbol: ASCO9
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Caulescent perennials, with woody taproot and thick, multicipital, knotty root-crown, strigulose with straight, appressed hairs up to 0.4-0.7 mm. long, the stems and herbage cinereous or the foliage greenish, the leaflets pubescent or sub- glabrate above; stems apparently diffuse, (0.8) 1.5-3.5 dm. long, leafless at base, simple or branching upward from near the base, floriferous from 1-3 nodes below the middle." (bibref: 1814).
"The Columbia milk-vetch was one of several interesting and rare plants collected in the Columbia Basin by T. S. Brandegee and Frank Tweedy while they were working under W. M. Canby for the Northern Transcontinental Survey, a biological investigation underwritten by the Northern Pacific Railway. The specimens of this astragalus have been passed over by students of the genus as representing A. Casei, a species known otherwise from farther south in western Nevada and adjoining California and easily distinguished by its much longer peduncles and open racemes of more numerous and pubescent pods." (bibref: 1814).
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Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems apparently diffuse, (0.8) 1.5-3.5 dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules 1-6 mm. long, the lowest membranous, ovate, obtuse, more than semiamplexicaul, the upper ones narrower or shorter, deltoid, triangular, or lanceolate, herbaceous with membranous margins; leaves 3.5-5.5 cm. long, petioled, with 5-13 oblong-elliptic, narrowly oblanceolate, or linear-oblong, obtuse, or obtuse and mucronulate, flat or loosely folded leaflets 3-12 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles ascending, rather stout, 1.2-2.5 cm. long; racemes subcapitately but loosely 2-10- flowered, the flowers ascending, the axis not or scarcely elongating, less than 1 cm. long in fruit; bracts thinly herbaceous becoming papery, lance- or deltoid-acuminate, 1-5 mm. long; pedicels ascending, at early anthesis 0.6-1 mm., in fruit greatly thickened and about 1.5 mm. long; bracteoles 0-2, setaceous when present, calyx about 11-11.6 mm. long, strigulose with appressed black hairs, the subsymmetric disc 1.2-1.4 mm. deep, the deeply campanulate, submembranous tube 6.6-7 mm. long, 3.8-4 mm. in diameter, the narrowly lance-subulate teeth 4-4.8 mm long; petals apparently whitish; banner recurved through about 35 degrees, oblanceolate, 18.1-19.5 mm. long, 7.5-7.8 mm. wide; wings 18.5-19.5 mm. long, the claws 7.3-7.6 mm., the narrowly oblong, obtuse, straight blades 12.3-13 mm. long, 2.8 mm. wide; keel 13.1-13.6 mm. long, the claws it 7.5 mm., the half-obovate blades about 6.7 mm. long, 3.5 mm. wide, incurved through about 85 degrees to the bluntly deltoid apex; anthers 0.7-0.8 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod apparently ascending and probably humistrate, sessile, narrowly oblong- or lance-ellipsoid, incurved through 1/4 to over Vi a circle, 2.5-4 cm. long, 8.5-10.5 mm. in diameter, obtuse or subtruncate at base, acuminate distally into an elongate, laterally flattened beak, otherwise dorsiventrally compressed, carinate ventrally by the suture, flattened or depressed dorsally, the lateral angles rounded but rugulose-reticulate when ripe, the green, fleshy, glabrous valves becoming subligneous, prominently cross-reticulate, not inflexed; dehiscence apical, through the beak, after falling; ovules 48-51; seeds brown or olivaceous, pitted and wrinkled, sublustrous, 2.5-3 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: WhiteBloom Time: Mar , Apr , May
Bloom Notes: "Petals apparently whitish." (bibref: 1814).
Distribution
USA: WANative Distribution: "Known positively only from along the Columbia River above Priest’s Rapids, Yakima County, Washington." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Rocky slopes at low elevations in the sagebrush zone, on basalt." (bibref: 1814).
Bibliography
Bibref 1814 - Atlas of North American Astragalus Volume 2 (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.Search More Titles in Bibliography
Additional resources
USDA: Find Astragalus columbianus in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Astragalus columbianus in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus columbianus
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus