Astragalus equisolensis
Rhodora 83: 457, fig. [p. 458]. 1981.
Plants acaulescent or subacaulescent, 5–18 cm, strigulose, hairs basifixed; from branched caudex. Stems prostrate, when developed, 0–2.5 cm, mostly obscured by stipules, strigulose. Leaves 1.5–9 cm; stipules connate-sheathing at proximal nodes, connate or distinct at distal nodes, 2–5 cm, membranous; leaflets 5–17, blades elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, 3–12 mm, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces strigose. Peduncles erect, 2–9 cm. Racemes 4–13-flowered, flowers ascending or spreading; axis 1.5–8 cm in fruit; bracts 2–4.5 mm; bracteoles 0. Pedicels 0.5–2 mm. Flowers 12–16 mm; calyx cylindric, 6–8.5 mm, strigose, tube 4.5–6 mm, lobes subulate, 1.2–2.5 mm; corolla purplish; keel 9.5–12.5 mm. Legumes declined to deflexed, green, usually red-mottled or -spotted, becoming stramineous, lunately incurved, obliquely ovoid or lanceoloid-ellipsoid, dorsiventrally compressed, 10–14 × 3.5–6.5 mm, unilocular or subunilocular, thickly papery, hirsute, hairs lustrous; sessile, gynophore 0.3–0.8 mm. Seeds 20.
Phenology: Flowering May–Jun.
Habitat: Sagebrush, shadscale, horsebrush, and other mixed desert shrub communities on Duchesne River Formation.
Elevation: 1400–1800 m.
Discussion
Astragalus equisolensis lies north of its close ally, A. desperatus, in Uintah County, Utah, and in extreme western Mesa County, Colorado.
Selected References
None.