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Astragalus cremnophylax var. myriorrhaphis

Astragalus cremnophylax Barneby var. myriorrhaphis Barneby

Buckskin Mountains Cliff Milkvetch, Buckskin Mountains Sentry Milkvetch, Sentry Milkvetch

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: ASCRM

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Dwarf, evergreen, perennial, mat forming herb, 2-16 cm (0.8-6.3 in.) diameter, and less than 2.5 cm (1.0 in.) high. Stems short, 1.2 cm long and creeping, with 5-9 compound leaflets. Gray-green leaves produced at the end of the season are 2-3.5 cm (0.8-1.4 in) long, with 7-11 scattered leaflets which disjoint readily when dry, leaving the persistent rachis as a stiff, upright spinescent structure. Raceme of 1-3 tiny flowers is held slightly above the mat; flowers pale purplish-lilac. Fruits are unilocular, obliquely egg-shaped, and hairy; seeds are orange.." (webref: 58).

"From the date of its discovery by M. E. Jones in 1905 until the spring of 1978, A. cremnophylax has been known from a single population confined to a strip of limestone rimrock near Powell Monument on the south rim of Grand Canyon. The plants at this locality form lichen-like scabs of minute silvery foliage pressed against the rock pavement; the leaves do not surpass 12 mm in length and consist of mostly 5-9 leaflets crowded at tip of a soft recurving leaf-stalk. A larger population discovered in 1978 by R. Gierisch and associates on Buckskin Mountain, a north spur of Kaibab Plateau near the Utah border, is perceptibly different in habit and deserves taxonomic status. Here the early leaves of the annual growth-cycle are not different from those of typical var. cremnophylax, but later ones become about 1.5-3.5 cm long, at maturity stiff and at least weakly pungent,bearing 7-11 distant or scattered leaflets that disjoint readily when dried. A hand passed over the flat or mounded cushions of var. myriorrhaphis instantly detects the myriad spinulose points of the adult petioles." (reslit: 2898).