Plants perennial, (10–)15–40 cm. Leaves (2–)3–11 cm; leaf­lets (7–)17–27(or 29), blades oval-obovate, obovate-cuneate, or broadly oblanceolate, (2–)3–15(–18) mm, apex truncate or emarginate. Peduncles (1.5–)3–6 cm. Racemes 7–20-flowered, short and compact in fruit; axis (0.5–)1–4 cm in fruit. Flowers (12–)14–19(–20) mm; calyx (5–)6.2–11 mm, tube (4.2–)4.7–7.2 mm, lobes (0.5–)1.3–3.4 mm; corolla brilliant or pale pink-purple. Legumes green, usually red-mottled, obliquely ovoid or lunately semi-ovoid, greatly or slightly inflated, 12–30 × 5-16 mm, semibilocular, somewhat fleshy becoming leathery or stiffly papery, strigulose, hairs usually white, rarely black; beak 3–10 mm, unilocular. Seeds 21–30.

Phenology: Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat: Dry, grassy hillsides, canyon floors and benches, on shale or sandstone outcrops, in arid grasslands with blue oak, with foothill pine, among sagebrush.
Elevation: 300–2100 m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Calif.

Discussion

Variety idriensis occurs in and around the head of the San Joaquin Valley and in the South Coast ranges, where it is the only form of Astragalus lentiginosus with shortly racemose purple flowers that is native (R. C. Barneby 1964).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.