Native Plants
Plant Database
Search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. If you are not sure what you are looking for, try the Combination Search or our Recommended Species lists.
Astragalus cronquistii
Astragalus cronquistii Barneby
Cronquist's Milkvetch
Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonym(s):
USDA Symbol: ASCR4
USDA Native Status: L48 (N)
"Diffuse, perennial, with a stout taproot and buried root-crown, strigulose with subappressed (and a few narrowly ascending), filiform or flattened and scalelike hairs up to 0.2—0.5 mm. long, the stems cinereous distally, the herbage bicolored, the leaflets gray and densely pubescent beneath, yellowish-green and glabrous to thinly and minutely pubescent above; stems several, decumbent and radiating, (1.5) 2-4 dm. long, subterranean for a space of 5-14 cm., simple or divaricately branched or spurred at 1—3 nodes preceding the first peduncle, floriferous upward from near or above the middle." (bibref: 1813).
"The Cronquist milk-vetch is a modest astragalus but one of great theoretical interest. It stands apart from all other Lonchocarpi because of its regularly pinnate foliage combined with a subsessile, trigonously compressed pod the cavity of which, unlike that of other members of the section (except rarely in A. Coltoni), is partially divided into two chambers by a narrow septum. In general appearance A. Cronquistii does not suggest the normally ephedroid or at least sparsely leafy Lonchocarpi as much as some members of sect. Scytocarpi or sect. Strigulosi. The habit of growth, subterranean root-crown, sheathing lower stipules, and bicolored leaflets recall some forms of A. (Scytocarpi) flexuosus or A. (Strigulosi) cobrensis, and the trigonous, subunilocular pod also suggests an affinity to the Strigulosi. However, the lower stipules in both these sections are fully amplexicaul and connate opposite the petiole into a cuplike sheath, quite different from those of sect. Lonchocarpi which are united to a vestigial petiole but only about three-fourths amplexicaul." (bibref: 1813).
From the Image Gallery
No images of this plant
Plant Characteristics
Duration: PerennialHabit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several, decumbent and radiating, (1.5) 2-4 dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules 2-6 mm. long, dimorphic, those at the buried nodes papery, pallid or brownish, adnate to the vestigial petiole to form a bidentate sheath embracing more or less3/4 the stem's circumference, the upper ones herbaceous, deltoid to triangular, often spreading or deflexed; leaves 1.5-4.5 cm. long, mostly divaricate or recurved, sessile or nearly so, with 7-15 oblong-elliptic to linear-oblong, deeply retuse to truncate-emarginate, flat or loosely folded leaflets 6-20 (23) mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles divaricate and incurved-ascending, 2-6.5 cm. long; racemes loosely 6-20-flowered, the flowers nodding at full anthesis, the axis (1.5) 2-6.5 (8.5) cm. long in fruit; bracts triangular-subulate, 0.6-1.2 mm. long; pedicels at anthesis arched outward, in fruit ascending at a wide angle, divaricate, or recurved, thickened, 2-2.5 mm. long, tardily disjointing with the fruit; bracteoles 0; calyx about 4 mm. long, strigulose with white and sometimes a few fuscous hairs, the campanulate tube about 3-4 mm. long, 2.2-2.5 mm. in diameter, the broadly subulate or triangular teeth 0.5-1 mm. long, separated by wide, obtuse sinuses, the whole becoming papery, ruptured, persistent; petals pink-purple, the wing- and keel-tips paler; banner recurved through 90-100 degrees, broadly obovate- cuneate, openly notched, about 8 mm. long, 5.5 mm. wide; wings nearly as long, the claws about 4 mm., the obovate, obtuse or subemarginate, incurved blades about 5 mm. long; keel nearly as long as the banner, the claws 4-4.5 mm., the almost halfcircular blades about 4 mm. long, 2.6-3 mm. in diameter, incurved through 100-120 degrees to the sharply deltoid apex." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod declined or pendulous, sessile or contracted at base into an incipient stipe up to 0.8 mm. long, the body linear-elliptic, linear, or obscurely linear-oblanceolate in profile, straight to gently incurved (rarely a trifle decurved), (2) 2.2-3 cm. long, 3.5-4.8 mm. in diameter, bluntly trigonous, keeled ventrally by the prominent suture, openly grooved dorsally, the lateral faces low- convex, the lateral angles rounded, the thin, green or faintly red-dotted, strigulose valves becoming stramineous, papery, cross-reticulate, inflexed as a rudimentary septum 0.3-0.6 mm. wide; dehiscence unknown; seeds oblong or prismatic, greenish-brown and purple-dotted, pitted but sublustrous, 3.6-4.8 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Bloom Information
Bloom Color: Pink , PurpleBloom Time: Apr , May
Bloom Notes: "Petals pink-purple, the wing- and keel-tips paler." (bibref: 1813).
Distribution
USA: CO , UTNative Distribution: Known only from the type-locality and vicinity in Comb Wash west of Bluff, San Juan County, Utah." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Low sandy and gravelly ridges, on red sandstone, ± 4000 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 cronquistii in USDA PlantsFNA: Find Astragalus cronquistii in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus cronquistii
Metadata
Record Modified: 2020-12-07Research By: Joseph A. Marcus