Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems very short, 0-5 cm. lon." (bibref: 1814).
Leaf: "Stipules submembranous becoming papery, often brownish when old, 2-8 (10) mm. long, the lowest (often dorsally glabrate) and sometimes all ovate or broadly lanceolate, the upper ones commonly longer and narrower, decurrent-amplexicaul around half to the whole stem's circumference, but the margins, even when in contact, not united; leaves 1.5-8.5 cm. long, with 11-17 (19) obovate-cuneate or oval-oblong and obtuse, less often elliptic-oblanceolate and acute leaflets 2-10 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Flower: "Peduncles almost 0 to 9 cm. long, usually much and always a little shorter than the leaf, incurved-ascending at anthesis, arcuately reclinate or prostrate in fruit; bracts membranous or broadly membranous-margined, ovate or lanceolate, 1.8-6.5 mm. long; pedicels ascending or a trifle arched outward, at anthesis slender, 1.2-3.2 mm. long, in fruit a little thickened, 1.8-3.8 mm. long; bracteoles commonly 0, exceptionally present and up to 2.5 mm. long; calyx 10.2-14 (14.7) mm. long, pubescent like the herbage with white and often some or nearly all black hairs, the somewhat oblique disc 1-2.5 mm. deep, the cylindric, pallid or purplish tube 8.4-10.9 mm. long, 2.7-3.9 mm. in diameter, the subulate or linear-subulate teeth 1.6-3.3 mm. long, the whole becoming papery, ruptured, marcescent; petals either bright pink-purple (drying bluish), or tinged with lilac or dull purple; banner oblanceolate, broadly rhombic-oblanceolate, or spatulate, notched, 15-24 mm. long; wings a little shorter, 17-19.5 (20.7) mm. long, the lance-oblong, the claws 10.2-12.2 (12.9) mm., obtuse blades rather abruptly narrowed and usually a little incurved in the distal third, 7.4-9 (10.2) mm. long, 2-2.8 mm. wide; ke; keel 15.9-18.5 mm. long, the claws 10.3-12.4 mm., the the half- obovate or lunately elliptic blades 5.7-7 mm. long, (2.2) 2.6-3.4 mm. wide, gently incurved through 80-90 (95) degrees to the blunt apex; anthers 0.45-0.85 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).
Fruit: "Pod ascending (humistrate), varying from plumply ovoid-acuminate to narrowly lance-elliptic in profile, (1.7) 2-3.2 (3.7) cm. long, 8-12 (13) mm. in diameter, either straight proximally and incurved into the deltoid or triangular-acuminate, laterally compressed beak, or gently incurved (through up to 1/2-circle) its whole length, obcompressed and dorsally flattened or very shallowly and widely sulcate in the lower ?, the ventral suture thick and prominent but sometimes depressed and lying in a double groove, the more or less fleshy, green valves becoming brownish, stiffly leathery or woody, faintly to quite strongly rugulose-reticulate and sometimes also wrinkled lengthwise on the ventral side, either strigulose with appressed and subappressed hairs up to 0.6-0.95 mm. long, or villous with loosely spreading, sometimes contorted hairs up to 1-1.65 mm. long., not inflexed; dehiscence apical, the ventral suture finally splitting but not separating; ovules 25-43; seeds brown, smooth or sparsely pitted, dull, 1.7-3 mm. long." (bibref: 1814).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink , Blue , Purple , Violet
Bloom Time: Apr , May , Jun
Bloom Notes: "Petals either bright pink-purple (drying bluish), or tinged with lilac or dull purple." (bibref: 1814).

Distribution

USA: AZ , CO , ID , MT , NV , UT , WY
Native Distribution: "Rather frequent and locally plentiful in the mountains enclosing the Colorado Basin, from the Grand River north through northwestern Colorado, west along the Uintah Range and south along the east slope of the Wasatch to central Utah; also northwest along the Bear River and adjacent hill country into southwestern Wyoming and southeastern Idaho; apparently disjunctly on the Kaibab Plateau in northwestern Arizona." (bibref: 1814).
Native Habitat: "Dry gravelly or sandy hillsides, stony ridges, mesas, and canyon benches, with sagebrush, juniper, piņon, or mountain-mahogany, sometimes at the edge of oak thickets, mostly on sedimentary bedrock, 6100-8000 feet." (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 argophyllus var. martinii in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Astragalus argophyllus var. martinii in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Astragalus argophyllus var. martinii