Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several, erect and ascending in clumps, 2.5-4 dm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules papery-membranous, pallid or stramineous, 2-12 mm. long, all amplexicaul and connate through more than half their length into an appressed, bidentate sheath, this sometimes ruptured by expansion of the stems, the uppermost ones sometimes free or nearly so to the base, all thinly pubescent dorsally; leaves (4) 5-16 cm. long, petioled or the uppermost only quite shortly so or subsessile, with 25-39 linear-oblong to narrowly obovate, obtuse or truncate- emarginate, flat or loosely folded leaflets (2) 5-25 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles erect, slender but rather stiff, (5.5) 7-25 cm. long, usually surpassing (or on the islands shorter than) the leaf; racemes rather densely 15-35-flowered, the flowers early spreading and then declined, the axis a little elongating, 2-11 cm. long in fruit; bracts scarious, lanceolate or triangular-acuminate, 1.4-3.7 mm. long; pedicels at anthesis arched outward, 1-2.8 mm. long, in fruit somewhat thickened, straight, erect or narrowly ascending, 2.5-6 mm. long; bracteoles 0, or minute and scalelike; calyx 6-8.6 mm. long, rather densely strigulose with mixed black and white or all black hairs, the slightly to strongly oblique disc 0.8-1.5 mm. deep, the campanulate tube (3.7) 4-5 mm. long, (2.8) 3-4 mm. in diameter, the subulate or lanceolate teeth (1.5) 1.8-3.6 mm. long, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals creamy-white, concolorous, or the keel faintly lilac-tipped; banner gently recurved (at a point remote from the orifice of the calyx) through about 50 degrees, rhombic-spatulate, shallowly emarginate or subentire, 13-16 mm. long, 6-8.8 mm. wide; wings as long or a little shorter, 12.4-15.3 mm. long, the claws 6-7.7 mm., the narrowly oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse or obscurely emarginate, often undulate-erose blades 7.4-9.4 mm. long, (2.1) 2.4-3.1 mm. wide, more or less incurved in the distal half; keel 10.7-12.7 mm. long, the claws 5.9-7.5 mm., the half obovate blades (4.8) 5-6.5 mm. long, 2.8-3.5 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 85-95 degrees to the bluntly deltoid, sometimes obscurely porrect apex; anthers 0.5-0.8 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod ascending, loosely spreading, rarely declined, sessile on and disjointing from a stiff, stipelike gynophore 2.3-5.5 (6) mm. long, the body obliquely obovoid or half-obovoid-ellipsoid, bladdery-inflated, 2.3-3.6 cm. long, 1.2-1.8 (2) cm. in diameter, broadly to narrowly obconic at base, contracted distally into a short, broadly deltoid, laterally flattened, erect or slightly to strongly incurved beak, the sutures both filiform, the ventral one straight or slightly convexly or concavely arcuate, the dorsal one strongly gibbous-convex, the thin, pale green, sparsely strigulose valves becoming papery-membranous, stramineous, lustrous, subdiaphanous, delicately cross-reticulate, not inflexed, the funicular flange 0 or not over 0.3 mm. wide; dehiscence apical, after falling; ovules (26) 28-37; seeds brown, smooth but dull, 2.2-3.3 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Purple , Violet
Bloom Time: Jan , Feb , Mar , Apr , May , Jun
Bloom Notes: "Petals creamy-white, concolorous, or the keel faintly lilac-tipped." (bibref: 1814). Flowering "(January) February to June, sometimes again in fall." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: CA
Native Distribution: "Commonly associated with outcrops of serpentine or metamorphic bedrock, locally plentiful in scattered stations from the mouth of San Simeon Creek, San Luis Obispo County, south to near Point Arguello, Santa Barbara County, also (in slightly different form discussed below) on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands; a poorly known but probably distinct form isolated inland in San Benito Count." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Grassy and brushy hillsides, rocky bluffs, and fallow fields near the coast, 50—450 feet, commonly associated with outcrops of serpentine or metamorphic bedrock, locally plentiful in scattered stations from the mouth of San Simeon Creek, San Luis Obispo County, south to near Point Arguello, Santa Barbara County, also (in slightly different form discussed below) on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands; a poorly known but probably distinct form isolated inland in San Benito County." (bibref: 1814).

Bibliography

Bibref 1814 - Atlas of North American Astragalus Volume 2 (1964) Barneby, Rupert C.

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Additional resources

USDA: Find Astragalus curtipes in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus curtipes in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus curtipes