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Astragalus convallarius var. finitimus

Astragalus convallarius Greene var. finitimus Barneby

Lesser Rushy Milkvetch

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: ASCOF

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Commonly slender, wiry, sparsely leafy or apparently almost leafless and rushlike, with a taproot and subterranean root-crown, densely to quite thinly strigulose with straight, appressed or narrowly ascending, filiform or somewhat flattened hairs (0.35) 0.4-0.6 (0.7) mm. long, the stems and herbage greenish-cinereous, cinereous, or sometimes canescent, the leaflets (when present) either equally pubescent on both sides or glabrescent to quite glabrous above; stems usually few, commonly ± 4-6, sometimes solitary, rarely up to 37, erect, ascending, or exceptionally diffuse or prostrate, (1) 2-5 (7) dm. long, subterranean for a space of 1-7 cm., simple, leafless, commonly purplish at base, thereafter (sometimes at the first emersed node, usually beyond it) bearing divaricate-ascending or rather strict branches or spurs at 1-6 nodes preceding the first peduncle, the branches sometimes again branched, those of the primary axis often paired with a smaller branch, a spur, or a peduncle, or the peduncles paired distally, the whole becoming flexuous or zigzag distally, striate throughout." (bibref: 1813).

"In view of the variability allowed to the pod of A. convallarius var. convallarius, the present variety must appear poorly characterized. The fruiting collections examined, all from a compact area lying shortly but disjunctly to the west of the Sevier Valley which marks the southernmost outpost of A. convallarius var. convallarius, are alike in the relatively short and broad pod and in the high ovule- number hardly to be expected in so small a fruit. In the outline and proportion of length to width the pod of A. convallarius var. finitimus resembles that of A. diversifolius, with which the typus was at first confused (Barneby, 1944, p. 148). The resemblance is coincidental, however, for A. convallarius var. finitimus has the xerophytic habits and greatly reduced foliage of A. convallarius." (bibref: 1813).

 

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems usually few, commonly 4-6, sometimes solitary, rarely up to 37, erect, ascending, or exceptionally diffuse or prostrate, (1) 2-5 (7) dm long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules more or less dimorphic, those at the buried and lower emersed nodes papery-scarious, pallid or purplish-brown, often several- nerved, (1) 2-7 mm. long, amplexicaul and connate into a campanulate sheath, the median and upper ones nearly always smaller, herbaceous, ovate, triangular, or deltoid, commonly only semiamplexicaul, rarely briefly united at base; leaves 2-11 cm. long, the leaflets sometimes glabrous above. the leaflets of the upper leaves, sometimes of all, greatly reduced, wanting, or decurrent on the rachis, when present up to 1-5 pairs, linear, linear-filiform, or elliptic, commonly involute, exceptionally expanded and up to 3 mm. wide, 2-25 (33) mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles erect, incurved-ascending, or divaricate, (1) 3-14 cm. long, either longer or shorter than the leaf; racemes very loosely or remotely (1) 3-25-flowered, the flowers early spreading, at length declined and often irregularly secund, the axis (0.5) 2-18 (23) cm. long in fruit; bracts thinly herbaceous becoming papery, ovate or lanceolate, 0.5-2.3 mm. long, greenish, pallid, or purple-tinged; pedicels slender or subfiliform, at anthesis ascending at a wide angle or arched outward, 1-3.5 mm. long, in fruit straight and ascending, straight and divaricate, geniculate at base and refracted, or tortuous, 2-2.5 mm. long, tardily disjointing with the fruit; bracteoles 0, minute when present; calyx 4-6 mm. long, strigulose with black or white hairs, the symmetric or slightly oblique disc 0.6-1 (1.4) mm. deep, the campanulate tube 3.4-4.8 mm. long, (2.2) 2.5-5.3 mm. in diameter, rounded or obliquely turbinate at base, sometimes a trifle constricted at the mouth and then obscurely urceolate, the broadly subulate, triangular, or deltoid, mostly obtuse teeth 0.5-1.4 mm. long, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals ochroleucous, ochroleucous veined or tinged with dull purple, sometimes bright rose-purple, all strongly incurved through at least a right angle, usually not strongly graduated, the wings (detached) often a trifle longer than the banner but arched in a longer and wider arc and so, in situ, appearing shorter; banner about 7.5 mm. long, the shortly cuneate claw abruptly expanded into a broadly ovate, rhombic- ovate, suborbicular, or inversely reniform, shallowly and openly notched or entire blade 5-8.2 mm. wide; wings 7.6-8.4 mm. long, the claws (3) 3.5-5.6 mm., the lunately oblong, oblong-oblanceolate, or obliquely obovate, obtuse, often erose, or sometimes subemarginate blades 3.5-7 mm. long, (1.6) 2-3 mm. wide, their inner margins commonly infolded and once or more undulately notched near the middle; keel 7.7-8.1 mm. long, the claws (3) 3.2-5.4 mm., the lunately triangular, or lunately half-circular blades 4.1-4.5 mm. long, about 2.4 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 100-125 degrees to the triangular or sometimes triangular- acuminate, subacute or obtuse, often obscurely porrect apex; anthers 0.55-0.75 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod essentially pendulous, but spreading vertically from divaricate peduncles and then (in pressed material) apparently horizontal, sessile but sometimes basally attenuate and then appearing very shortly and obscurely stipitate, the body narrowly oblong, straight, 1.3-5 cm. long, 2.3-4 mm. in diameter, laterally compressed, bicarinate by the slender sutures, the faces flat when young becoming strongly flattened and obscurely torulose when ripe, the thin, pale green, purplish, or purple-mottled, strigulose valves becoming papery, stramineous, delicately cross-reticulate, not inflexed; dehiscence apical and downward through both sutures, the valves ultimately separating to the base and coiling outward; ovules 18-26; seeds brown or olivaceous, sometimes purple-speckled, smooth and lustrous, or more or less pitted or rugulose and then either dull or shining, 2-2.6 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink , Yellow , Purple
Bloom Time: May , Jun
Bloom Notes: "Petals ochroleucous, ochroleucous veined or tinged with dull purple, sometimes bright rose-purple." (bibref: 1813).

Distribution

USA: NV , UT
Native Distribution: "Local and apparently rather rare, Highland Range, Lincoln County, Nevada, eats to the north foothills of the Pine Valley Mountains, Washington County, Utah." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Gravelly and sandy clay hillsides, with sagebrush, piñon and juniper, on limestone, ± 6000-6500 feet." (bibref: 1813).

Bibliography

Bibref 1813 - Atlas of North American Astragalus (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.

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Additional resources

USDA: Find Astragalus convallarius var. finitimus in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus convallarius var. finitimus in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus convallarius var. finitimus

Metadata

Record Modified: 2020-12-07
Research By: Joseph A. Marcus

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