Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems above ground 1-3.5 dm long." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Leaf-spurs up to 1 mm long; stipules more or less dimorphic, those subtending leaves subherbaceous becoming papery and yellowish, narrowly subulate to linear attenuate, (1) 1.5-5 mm long, subglabrous, but some low on the stem broadly oblanceolate, up to 1 cm long, coarsely 1-3-dentate; leaves 1-4.5 cm long, short-petioled with margins, pustular rachis and 1-4 (the main cauline leaves with 2-4, the upper ones with 1-2) pairs of ovate to rhombic-ovate or oblong-elliptic, stoutly yellow mucronate leaflets (3) 5-12 (15) mm long, their margins thickened, subrevolute, entire to obscurely undulate or rarely dentate." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Racemes sessile or almost so, loosely 1- (5)-flowered, the first flower borne at or just above base, the axis running out into glabrous yellow spinule; bracts resembling stipules, 1.5-2.5 mm long; pedicels slender 1-2.3 mm long, charged at apex with a pair of bracteoles 0.6-2.3 mm long, often accompanied by a pair of glands; calyx 7-8.2 mm long, thinly strigulose-pilosulous externally, the inner face of the teeth silky-canescent, the disc 1-1.5 mm deep, the vase-shaped tube 3.8-4.2 mm long, herbaceous throughout but the intervals a little thinner than the inconspicuous ribs and charged with 1 row of 2-7 glands of varying sizes, the teeth unequal, the ventral pair (united no higher than the rest) ovate, acute, 3-4.2 mm long, 1.8-2.6 mm wide, about twice wider and a little longer than the lanceolate lateral and dorsal ones; petals glabrous, blue, the banner charged with a large subapical gland, the keel and often the wings glandless; banner 7-9.2 mm long, obovate- cuneate, deeply notched, the blade 5.2-7.4 mm wide, evenly curved backward, tapering downward into the scarcely differentiated claw; wings as long or a trifle longer, 7.8-9.3 mm long, the claw 3-3.6 mm, the oblong, obtuse or obliquely emarginate blade 5-6.6 mm long, 3.2-3.9 mm wide; keel 8-10 mm long, the claw 3-3.8 mm, the broadly obovate blade 5.2-6.5 mm long, 3.4-4 mm wide; androecium 8-9.5 mm long, the filaments free for 3.2-4.4 mm, the anthers 0.8-1.5 mm long." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod in profile obliquely, rather narrowly obovate in outline, (3.5) 4-5.5 mm long, the style-base lateral slightly below apex, the valves in the lower half hyaline, glabrous, distally papery, pilosulous, sprinkled with small, pale yellow glands; seeds 1 or 2, when 2 one raised obliquely beyond the other, 3.1-3.8 mm long, 2.1-2.5 mm diam, pallidly olivaceous with a linear brown patch extending from scar half way to base. In fruit July to September." (bibref: 1812).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Blue
Bloom Time: Jun , Jul , Aug
Bloom Notes: "Petals are clear blue." (bibref: 1812).

Distribution

USA: NV
Native Distribution: "Forming extensive colonies but extremely local, known by modern collections only from the great dunes in the piedmont of Santa Rosa Mountains. on the west bank of Little Humboldt River (Paradise Valley) and from southern end of Silver State Valley at points 8-20 mi norhtwest of Winnemucca, Humboldt County, Nevada, but described from Hot Springs Mountains, southwest of Brady’s Hot Springs in Carson Sink, northwestern Churchill County ± 180 km southwest of Paradise Valley), to be sought elsewhere in lower Humboldt River Valley." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Sandbanks and hollows of hummocked dunes, ± 1300-1400 m (4350-4700 ft)." (bibref: 1812).

Additional resources

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