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Astragalus cibarius

Astragalus cibarius Sheldon

Browse Milkvetch

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: ASCI2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Of moderate stature, with a shortly forking, ultimately gnarled and woody caudex, strigulose with appressed or subappressed, straight or nearly straight hairs up to 0.5-0.75 mm. long, the herbage greenish or rarely cinereous in youth, the leaflets glabrous above; stems several, decumbent or weakly ascending simple, (0.4) 0.6-2 (2.5) dm. long, arising from buds at or just below soil-level." (bibref: 1813).

"The browse milk-vetch, A. cibarius, is a superficially commonplace species of undistinguished mien, resembling in habit several of the larger-flowered forms of A. lentiginosus, to which flowering specimens are often referred in herbaria. The large, veiny lower stipules usually provide a clue to the identity of even quite young material. The pod resembles in exterior form that of several Argophylli, but it is either stipitate or at least contracted at base into a thickened neck continuous with the receptacle and therefore falls together with the disjointing pedicel. It varies greatly in length and simultaneously in the degree of dorsiventral flattening. A fruit of relatively short and plump outline is commonly rounded on the dorsal face and ventrally sulcate near the base, whereas the longest pods are commonly grooved along both sutures from the beak downward. Intergradation between the extreme forms and sizes of the pod is gradual and completely documented by specimens, and variation even in small colonies of otherwise like plants is often considerable." (bibref: 1813).

 

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several, decumbent or weakly ascending simple, (0.4) 0.6-2 (2.5) dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules 3-8 mm. long, the lowest (or all) membranous, several-nerved, sometimes purplish, ovate, mostly obtuse, large and conspicuous, semidecurrent-amplexicaul, the upper ones progressively narrower, the uppermost deltoid or lanceolate, acute; leaves 3.5-10 cm. long, all petioled but the upper ones shortly so, with (9) 13-19 obovate, oblong-obovate, or broadly oblanceolate, obtuse or commonly retuse- emarginate, mostly flat leaflets 4-17 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles 3-8 cm. long, incurved- ascending at anthesis, reclinate in fruit; racemes loosely but shortly 4-14-flowered, subcapitate in early anthesis, the flowers spreading-ascending, the axis little elongating, 0.5-1.5 cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous, ovate or lance-acuminate, 2-4 mm. long; pedicels ascending, at anthesis 1-1.6 mm. long, in fruit thickened, 2-2.5 mm. long, finally disjointing and falling with the marcescent calyx and pod, bracteoles 0-2; calyx 6.4-8.6 mm. long, densely strigulose with black or largely black hairs, the disc 0.8-1.3 mm. deep, the campanulate or subcylindric tube 5-6.5 mm. long, 2.4-3.8 mm. in diameter, the subulate teeth 1.4-2.5 mm. long, the ventral pair commonly shortest and broadest; petals ochroleucous tinged with dull lavender, pale bluish-white, or occasionally purple with white wing-tips;.banner recurved through about 45 degrees, 15-19 mm. long, the cuneate claw expanded into a rhombic-ovate blade 8-10 mm. wide; wings 13.4-17 mm. long, the claws 5.4-7 mm., the narrowly oblong, obtuse, nearly straight blades 9-11.2 mm. long 2.2-2.7 (3.3) mm. wide; keel 9.8-12.7 mm. long, the claws 5.2-6.8 mm., the half-obovate blades 5.3-6.7 mm. long, 2.7-3.2 mm. wide, incurved through 75-90 to the rounded apex; anthers 0.55-0.7 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod loosely ascending (humistrate), subsessile or cuneately narrowed at base into a thick, necklike stipe up to 2 mm. long, the ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid body 1.7-3.2 cm. long, 7-9 (10) mm. in diameter, nearly straight or incurved through one third circle (the curvature usually more abrupt in the lower than the distal half), contracted distally into a short, laterally compressed, deltoid beak, otherwise obcompressed (caveat lector: often distorted by pressing), when relatively long openly sulcate both dorsally and ventrally, when short only a little sulcate ventrally near the base and flattenned or low-convex dorsally, both sutures thick and prominent but the dorsal one less so and commonly undulate, the fleshy, green, minutely strigulose valves becoming stramineous, woody or stiffly leathery, rugulose-reticulate, not inflexed, or inflexed as a narrow partition less than 1 mm. wide; ovules 27-32; seeds dark brown pitted or nearly smooth, 2.5-3.3 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Yellow , Blue , Purple , Violet
Bloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Jul , Aug
Bloom Notes: "Petals ochroleucous tinged with dull lavender, pale bluish-white, or occasionally purple with white wing-tips." (bibref: 1813).

Distribution

USA: CO , ID , MT , NV , UT , WY
Native Distribution: "Common and locally plentiful in southeastern Idaho and northern Utah, extending less abundantly north to Clarks Fork in Missoula County and to the Gallatin and Yellowstone Valleys in Gallatin, Sweet Grass, and Stillwater Counties, Montana, thence southeast to the upper North Platte in Carbon County, Wyoming, and to the Yampa and North Gunnison Rivers in Moffat and Delta Counties, Colorado, west into the calcareous ranges of northeastern and eastcentral Nevada, and south along the Wasatch in Utah to Iron County." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Grassy hillsides, sagebrush flats, valley floors, and canyon benches, in stiff clay or gravel, but without apparent rock preference, (3300, northward) 4900-8000 feet." (bibref: 1813).

Bibliography

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

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Additional resources

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

Metadata

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

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