Plant Database

Search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. If you are not sure what you are looking for, try the Combination Search or our Recommended Species lists.

Astragalus cymboides

Astragalus cymboides M.E. Jones

Canoe Milkvetch

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s): Astragalus amphioxys var. cymbellus

USDA Symbol: ASCY2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"(L)ow, tufted, acaulescent or nearly so, perennial but sometimes flowering the first season, densely strigose-strigulose with straight or largely straight, appressed and (nearly always, especially on the petioles and peduncles) some looser, ascending hairs up to 0.8-1.3 mm. long, the herbage cinereous or silvery-canescent, the leaflets equally pubescent on both sides, the vesture sometimes turning greenish-golden on the upper side when dry; stems 1—several, mostly reduced to sessile crowns, if elongating then prostrate, up to 2 (3) cm. long, the internodes mostly concealed by stipules, none over 5 mm. long, mostly shorter; stipules submembranous, becoming firmly papery, ovate, deltoid- or broadly lance-acuminate, 3—8 mm long, semiamplexicaul; leaves 2.5—8 (10) cm. long, with deciduous or weakly persistent petiole and (5) 7—13 (15), or (in some early leaves, or in all leaves of seedling plants) only 1—5, obovate, elliptic, or broadly oblanceolate, obtuse or subacute, flat leaflets 3—13 (20) mm. long; peduncles rather stout, 2—8 cm. long, ascending at anthesis, arcuate-procumbent or prostrate in fruit; racemes shortly but loosely (3) 4—9 (12)-flowered, the flowers ascending, the axis little elongating, 0.5-2 (2.5) cm. long in fruit; bracts thinly herbaceous becoming papery, ovate- to broadly lance-acuminate, (1) 1.5-4 mm. long; pedicels ascending, straight or a little arched in age, at anthesis 0.7-2.3 mm., in fruit thickened, 2.5 mm. long; bracteoles 0; calyx 7.6-10.2 (14.6) mm. long, strigulose with black or mixed black and white hairs, the slightly oblique disc 1.1-1.6 (2.8) mm. deep, the cylindric or rarely cylindro-campanulate tube 5.9-8 (11) mm. long, 2.7-3.7 (4.5) mm. in diameter, the subulate teeth 1-2.3 (3.4) mm. long; petals commonly whitish or yellowish, with white- or lilac-tipped wings, sometimes all suffused with dull lilac, rarely all pink-purple, the keel-tip always maculate; banner recurved through ± 40°, broadly rhombic-oblanceolate or spatulate, shallowly notched, 15.4-18.4 (24) mm. long, 8-10 (14.5) mm. wide; wings 14.7-17 (22.8) mm. long, the claws 7.6-9 (12.8) mm., the narrowly lanceolate or linear- oblong, obtuse, nearly straight blades 8.2-10 (11.5) mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide; keel 12.6-15.1 (20.2) mm. long, the claws 7.8-9.2 mm., the half-obovate blades 5.5-6.7 (8.8) mm. long, 2.5-3.1 mm. wide, abruptly incurved through 90-95° to the rounded apex; anthers 0.6-0.8 mm. long; pod ascending (humistrate), narrowly oblong to oblong-elliptic in profile, straight or a trifle oblique (either suture the more convex), 1.7-3 (3.5) cm. long, 6-9.5 mm. in diameter, cuneate or rounded at base, contracted distally into a short, erect or slightly declined, triangular-cuspidate beak, fleshy and subterete when first formed, becoming strongly compressed laterally in ripening, ultimately bicarinate by the prominent, thick sutures, low-convex toward the middle of the two faces, the thick, green, densely strigulose valves becoming stiffly papery or somewhat cellular-spongy, the stramineous, faintly reticulate, longitudinally wrinkled exocarp at length exfoliating along the length of the ventral suture from the cellular mesocarp and ultimately recurving in the form of 2 horizontally spreading vanes; dehiscence of the firmly papery endocarp apical and finally downward through the ventral suture; ovules 39-57; seeds brown or orange-brown, pitted, sublustrous, 2-2.4 mm. long." (bibref: 1813).

The specific epithet, cymboides refers to the species' boat-shaped fruit. (bibref: 1813).