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Astragalus crassicarpus var. trichocalyx

Astragalus crassicarpus Nutt. var. trichocalyx (Nutt.) Barneby

Groundplum Milkvetch, Ozark Groundplum

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s): Astragalus mexicanus var. trichocalyx, Astragalus trichocalyx

USDA Symbol: ASCRT

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Commonly taller and coarser than the preceding varieties, more rarely quite slender and decumbent, except for the calyces and pedicels thinly strigulose-pilosulous with loosely ascending or subappressed hairs up to 0.5-0.9 (1) mm. long, the stems glabrous or nearly so toward the base, the herbage green, or grayish only in youth, the leaflets either glabrous or thinly pubescent above." (bibref: 1814).

"The Ozark ground-plum, A. c. var. trichocalyx, is ordinarily very distinct because of its coarse ascending stems and its villous-tomentulose calyx and pedicels. The pubescence is fugacious, however, for the calyx is deciduous by circumscissile fission above the disc, and the pedicels become glabrate as they thicken and elongate beneath the ripening fruit. The petals are commonly ochroleucous, but not rarely suffused with pinkish-lilac. Slender forms with decumbent stems (Waterfall 9365, OKLA, SMU) are occasionally met with, and in these the fruits are humistrate as in other forms of A. crassicarpus. The pod is ordinarily large, 2.5 cm. long or longer and at least 1.5 cm. in diameter, but it is sometimes no larger than that of var. crassicarpus and is exactly like the commonest type of A. c. var. Berlandieri. Possibly the fruits of A. c. var. trichocalyx persist longer on the receptacle than in other forms of the species, but too little material with truly ripe pods has been seen to settle this interesting point.." (bibref: 1814).