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Astragalus collinus var. collinus

Astragalus collinus Douglas ex G. Don var. collinus

Hillside Milkvetch

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: ASCOC7

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

"Robust or sometimes quite slender, villosulous nearly throughout with fine, ascending, incurved, sinuous, or curly hairs up to 0.3-0.55 mm. long, the herbage cinereous or greenish, the leaflets commonly pubescent on both sides, sometimes thinly so or (rarely) glabrous above; stems several or numerous, decumbent, diffusely ascending, or nearly erect, 1.5-4 (5) dm. long, together forming low, well- furnished clumps, commonly slender and leafless at base, stouter upward, composed of ± 4-7 (11) developed internodes, spurred or branched at 1 or more nodes at and below the middle." (bibref: 1813).

"Within its area of dispersal the hill milk-vetch, A. collinus, is easily recognized by its greatly modified flower, remarkable for the tumid, basally pouched calyx of nearly the same color as the creamy petals, and for the relatively short, sigmoidally arched banner. The body of the pod is ordinarily straight, but is sometimes a trifle arched upward or downward." (bibref: 1813).

 

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Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Herb
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "Stems several or numerous, decumbent, diffusely ascending, or nearly erect, 1.5-4 (5) dm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Leaf: "Stipules 2-5 (7) mm. long, the lowest early becoming papery, decurrent around more or less half the stem, the median and upper ones narrower, with lanceolate or triangular-acuminate, erect or deflexed, herbaceous blades; leaves 3-9 (10.5) cm. long, shortly petioled or the uppermost subsessile, with (9) 11-21 (25) oblong-oblanceolate, narrowly obovate-cuneate, or linear- elliptic, nearly always truncate-retuse but occasionally obtuse, flat leaflets 4-20 (22) mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Flower: "Peduncles erect or incurved-ascending, (4) 5-16 cm. long, equaling or commonly surpassing the leaf; racemes (10) 15-40 (55)-flowered, rather dense at early anthesis, the nodding flowers then retrosely imbricated, becoming looser in age, the axis (3) 4-12 (18) cm. long in fruit; bracts submembranous, ovate, lanceolate, or lance-acuminate, 1.5-3.5 mm. long; pedicels slender, ascending, at anthesis straight or nearly so, 0.8-2 mm. long, in fruit a trifle thickened, 1.5-2.8 mm. long; bracteoles commonly 2, rarely vestigial or 0; calyx 7-12.3 mm. long, villosulous or subtomentulose with white or some black hairs, the strongly oblique disc (0.8) 1-1.7 (2) mm. deep, the membranous, pallid, ovoid-campanulate or broadly cylindric tube 5.8-9.4 mm. long, (3.2) 3.7-5.7 mm. in diameter, straight or nearly so on the dorsal side, strongly convex on the ventral side and gibbous-saccate at base, the broadly lanceolate, triangular-subulate, or deltoid teeth (0.8) 1-2.7 (3.5) mm. long, the ventral pair broadest but either longer or shorter than the rest, the whole becoming papery, marcescent unruptured; petals cream-colored or pale lemon-yellow, the blade of the banner and the auricles of the wings and keel sometimes fleshy-thickened; banner (10.5) 12-17.2 mm. long, sigmoidally arched, the long-cuneate claw incurved proximally to conform with the calyx, the broadly oval, rhombic-ovate, or suborbicular, notched blade very abruptly and strongly folded back around the margins and 5-8.6 mm. wide, the blade exceptionally better developed and rhombic-oblanceolate, then recurved through about 50 degrees; wings (10.5) 11-15.7 mm. long, the claws (5.3) 6-8.2 mm., the obovate or broadly oblanceolate, obtuse or subemarginate, nearly straight blades (5.1) 5.4-9 mm. long, 2.1-3.3 mm. wide; keel 8.7-13.2 mm. long, the claws (5.3) 6-8.8 mm., the obtusely triangular blades (3.7) 4-5.5 mm. long, 2.2-3.5 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through about 90 degrees to the bluntly deltoid apex; anthers (0.4) 0.5-0.75 (0.9) mm. long." (bibref: 1813).
Fruit: "Pod pendulous, stipitate, the straight, slender stipe (5) 6-15 mm. long, the body slenderly linear-oblong in profile, 0.7-2.5 cm. long, 2.5-3.4 mm. in diameter, straight or rarely a little incurved, cuneate at both ends, shortly cuspidate at apex, strongly compressed, bicarinate by the thickened, salient sutures, the lateral faces low-convex toward the dorsal suture, the somewhat fleshy, greenish valves villosulous or loosely strigulose with hairs up to 0.25-0.5 mm. long, becoming stramineous, leathery, impressed-reticulate, not inflexed; ovules (10) 12-18; seeds (seldom seen) brown or olivaceous, smooth or pitted, dull about 2.5 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: White , Yellow
Bloom Time: May , Jun , Jul
Bloom Notes: "Petals cream-colored or pale lemon-yellow." (bibref: 1813).

Distribution

USA: ID , OR , WA
Canada: BC
Native Distribution: "Forming colonies and locally abundant in central and southeastern transmontane Washington, extending southeast along the Snake River and its affluents from the south into westcentral Idaho and the north foothills of the Wallowa and Blue Mountains in Oregon, westward into Umatilla County; also apparently isolated on the upper Okanogan and lower Thompson Rivers in southern British Columbia." (bibref: 1813).
Native Habitat: "Bunchgrass prairies, grassy hillsides, and sagebrush valleys, in light sandy or stony soils overlying basalt, 900-3100 feet." (bibref: 1813).

Bibliography

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

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Additional resources

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

Metadata

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

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