Astragalus cicer
Sp. Pl. 2: 757. 1753.
Plants leafy, 30–90(–130) cm, strigose-pilose; from subterranean branched caudex, branches long, rhizomelike. Stems erect or diffuse, flexuous, becoming decumbent-sprawling, sparsely strigose-pilose or glabrate. Leaves 2–10 cm; stipules 2–8 mm, herbaceous, becoming membranous; leaflets 17–29(or 31), blades lanceolate-elliptic or oblong, 5–35 mm, apex obtuse, apiculate, or acute, surfaces strigulose, sometimes glabrate adaxially. Peduncles incurved-ascending, 3.5–11 cm, together with racemes shorter than leaves. Racemes (6–)10–30-flowered, flowers ascending; axis (1.5–)2–5 cm in fruit; bracts 2–6.5 mm; bracteoles 0. Pedicels 0.3–1.5 mm. Flowers 12.5–16.5 mm; calyx subcylindric, 6.5–9 mm, strigulose, tube 5–6 mm, lobes triangular-acuminate, 1.6–3 mm; corolla ochroleucous; keel 9.6–10.5 mm. Legumes ascending to spreading, black, straight, obovoid to subglobose, inflated but firm, hardly bladdery, 6–14 × 5–10(–12) mm, sulcate ventrally, fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, pilose; stipe to 0.8 mm. 2n = 16, 32, 48, 64.
Phenology: Flowering Jun–Sep.
Habitat: Mixed desert shrub, sedge-willow, pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, and aspen communities, gravelly trails, mine tracks.
Elevation: 300–2800 m.
Distribution
Introduced; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon, Alaska, Calif., Colo., Idaho, Ind., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., Okla., Utah, Wash., Wyo., Europe.
Discussion
Astragalus cicer is a vigorous European species, now spreading around the American West in reclamation plantings. Its original introduction as a cover or forage crop is not recorded in taxonomic literature, but it has been in North America for at least seven decades. Astragalus cicer is somewhat equal to alfalfa in nutrient value.
Selected References
None.