Plant Database

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "(Stems) several, decumbent and ascending 1-1.7 dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules 2.5-6 mm. long, the lower ones broad, obtuse, fully amplexicaul, the lowest either united into a cuplike sheath or their contrapetiolar margins contiguous but free, the median and upper ones triangular-obovate or broadly lanceolate, all obtuse, several-nerved, glabrous or thinly pubescent dorsally; leaves (1.5) 2-5.5 cm. long, all but the lowest subsessile, with (9) 11-15 (17) rather crowded, elliptic-oblanceolate to linear- elliptic, acute or subacute, flat or loosely folded leaflets 4-16 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles incurved-ascending, 3-6.5 cm. long, about as long or a little longer than the leaf; racemes 11-21-flowered, at first rather dense but loosening during anthesis, the axis elongating, 2-6 cm. long in fruit; bracts membranous becoming papery, purple-tinged, linear, linear-lanceolate, or -oblanceolate, 3-5 mm. long; pedicels slender, at first ascending, at length spreading or arched outward, at anthesis 1-1.7 mm., in fruit 1.2-2 mm. long, little thickened but persistent; bracteoles 0; calyx 7-8.4 mm. long, villosulous like the herbage with black or mixed black and white hairs, the subsymmetric disc 0.9-1.3 mm. deep, the membranous, pallid but purple-tinged tube 3.8-4.4 mm. long, 3-3.4 mm. in diameter, the subulate or lance- subulate teeth 3-4 mm. long; petals creamy-white, the banner veined and distally suffused with dull lavender, the keel-tip maculate; banner recurved through about 50 degrees, obovate-spatulate, shallowly notched, 10-12.2 mm. long, 6.6-7.8 mm. wide; wings 9.2-11 mm. long, the claws 3.6-5.2 mm., the linear-oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, slightly incurved blades 6.7-7.5 mm. long, 1.8-2.8 mm. wide, cleft at apex into 2 unequal lobes, the inner one about twice as broad as the outer; keel 8.2-9.8 mm. long, the claws 3.8-4.7 mm., the half-obovate blades 5-6.1 mm. long, 2.2-2.8 mm. wide, incurved through 95-100 degrees (rarely less) into the bluntly deltoid, sometimes subporrect apex; anthers 0.45-0.55 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod loosely pendulous, stipitate, the slender stipe 3-5 mm. long, the body half-ellipsoid, bladdery-inflated but quite perceptibly compressed laterally, 2-2.5 cm. long, 7-9 (when pressed up to 11) mm. in diameter, the ventral suture convexly arched, the dorsal one straight or a trifle concave, the papery-membranous, glabrous, red-tinged valves becoming brownish or stramineous, subdiaphanous, delicately reticulate, inflexed as a hyaline septum about 1 mm. wide; ovules 10-15; seeds brown, nearly smooth, 2.5-2.8 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Violet
Bloom Time: Jun , Jul , Aug
Bloom Notes: "Petals creamy-white, the banner veined and distally suffused with dull lavender, the keel-tip maculate." (bibref: 1813).

Distribution

USA: WA
Native Distribution: "Locally plentiful on the north slope of the Olympic Mountains (Mount Angeles; Hurricane Ridge), Clallam County, Washington." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Open rocky crests and talus beneath subalpine cliffs, on granite, ± 4500— 5500 feet." (bibref: 1813).

Bibliography

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

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Additional resources

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