Herbs perennial, caulescent; caudex superficial or subterranean in talus. Hairs basifixed. Stems few to several. Stipules distinct or connate at proximal nodes. Leaves odd-pinnate, usually sessile, rarely petiolate; leaflets 5–19. Racemes loosely or subcompactly flowered, flowers ascending. Calyx tubes campanulate. Corollas whitish or cream, often suffused with lilac or purple-veined, keel apex maculate, banner recurved through 40–50°, wing apex unequally bilobed, keel apex blunt. Legumes persistent, stipitate, pendulous or spreading, asymmetrically ellipsoid, laterally compressed [inflated], usually bilocular or semibilocular. Seeds 8–16.

Distribution

North America, Europe, Asia.

Discussion

Species ca. 20 (1 in the flora).

Section Hemiphragmium consists of about twenty species of alpine Europe, interior montane Asia, northward into arctic Siberia, and one species of arctic and temperate North America from Alaska to Quebec and southward into the western cordillera.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Astragalus australis