Plants perennial, 6–30(–45) cm. Stems ascending to erect, mostly unbranched. Leaves 4–10 cm; leaflets (9 or)11–19, blades broadly obovate, obovate-cuneate, obcordate, or oblong to oblanceolate, 5–20 mm, apex usually retuse or emarginate, surfaces glabrate to densely strigulose, hairs appressed or subappressed. Peduncles 2–4.5(–5) cm. Racemes 10–25-flowered, floriferous from middle to distalmost nodes, short and compact in fruit; axis 1.5–4(–9) cm in fruit. Flowers 9.5–11.5 mm; calyx 5–6.4 mm, tube 3.6–4.2(–4.6) mm, lobes 1.2–2.2 mm; corolla whitish, sometimes wings and keel with lavender tips. Legumes green or mottled becoming stramineous, obliquely ovoid or subglobose, strongly inflated, 14–26(–30) × (6–)7.5–14 mm, papery-membranous, translucent, glabrous or puberulent; beak 3–9 mm, unilocular. Seeds (7–)16–25. 2n = 22.

Phenology: Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat: Saline flats and playas upward to mountain slopes in sagebrush, oak, and other montane communities.
Elevation: 700–2600 m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

B.C., Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wyo.

Discussion

Variety salinus, widespread in the northern and east­ern portions of the Great Basin, occupies a crucial posi­tion in the Astragalus lentiginosus complex, serving to link many superficially disparate lines of differentiation (R. C. Barneby 1964). On the one hand, one can trace a sequence passing through var. floribundus to var. ineptus, and then to vars. antonius, idriensis, and sierrae. On the other hand, another strand leads through vars. lentiginosus and platyphyllidius to vars. chartaceus, diphysus, and finally australis.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.