Plants tuft-forming, flattened cushions 1–3 dm wide, acaules­cent or subacaulescent, 1–3 cm, ashen-strigulose or sparsely hairy, hairs malpighian; caudex much-branched, branches with thatch of marcescent stipules and soft leaf bases. Stems obscured by stipules and leaf bases, sometimes shortly elongating following anthesis. Leaves 0.5–8 cm; stipules distinct at proximal nodes, connate at distal nodes, (2–)3–5 mm, membranous; leaflets (3 or)5 or 7, blades oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate or linear-elliptic, (2–)5–12 mm, apex obtuse or acute, surfaces ashen-strigulose. Peduncles obsolete. Racemes 1-flowered, flowers erect; bracts 2.5 mm; bracteoles 0. Pedicels obsolete. Flowers 14–18(–21) mm; calyx cylindric, 8–10 mm, strigulose to subglabrous, tube 6–6.7 mm, lobes linear-subulate, 2–3.3 mm; corolla bright pink-purple, keel maculate; banner recurved to 20°; keel apex blunt. Legumes erect, green, straight, inversely plumply pyriform, subglobose, subterete, 3 × 3 mm, thinly fleshy becoming papery, strigulose. Seeds 7 or 8. 2n = 22.

Phenology: Flowering May–Jun.
Habitat: Sandy hollows, in short-grass prairies, on shale-limestone outcrops.
Elevation: 1700–2000 m.

Distribution

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N.Mex.

Discussion

Astragalus wittmannii, known from Colfax, Harding, and Mora counties, is similar to A. siliceus; it was placed by R. C. Barneby (1964) in subsect. Nothorophaca Barneby rather than Humillimi, thus allying it with A. cremnophylax, because of the depauperate racemes, elongated flowers, and globose, non-compressed fruits.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.