Astragalus radicans Hornem. var. radicans
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Authors
Rupert C. Barneby
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Authority
Barneby, Rupert C. 1964. Atlas of North American Astragalus. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 13(1): 1-596.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Type
"Hab. F. intr. 1808 sub nom. Astr. radicans Humb."—No typus examined; to be sought at C; certainly identifiable from description and origin!
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Synonyms
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Tragacantha reptans (Willd.) Kuntze, Atelophragma reptans (Willd.) Rydb.
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Description
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Variety Description - Stipules at the lower nodes not seen, those at the fertile nodes (3) 5-9 mm. long; raceme-axis 2-5 cm. long in fruit; otherwise as given in the key. [Key] "Stems coarse, 2-8 dm. long; herbage comparatively rank, the leaves (7) 10-32 cm. long, with 21-31 leaflets (6) 10-25 mm. long; peduncles vertically erect, 1-2.6 dm. long; racemes densely (15) 20-30-flowered, the fruits retrorsely imbricated; ovules 20-31;"
Distribution and Ecology - Grassy knolls in low-lying meadows, ±7000-7300 feet, known only from the floor of the Valley of Mexico in the environs of Ciudad Mexico. Map No. 8. May to October.
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Discussion
The creeping milk-vetch is one of the curiosities of the genus. The stems apparently elongate indefinitely during the season of growth and are pressed close to the ground, giving rise at each of the upper nodes to a leaf and what must appear in nature to be a scapose peduncle which bears aloft a dense, oblong head of creamy-white or perhaps faintly purple- tinged flowers which are followed by crowded, retrorsely imbricated pods. A rootlet develops from the lower side of the stem opposite each peduncle; since Willdenow says that the plant was propagated at the Berlin Botanic Garden by means of offsets, the adventitious roots can evidently assume the function of the original taproot. This method of self-perpetuation is quite analogous to that found in some Scytocarpi and Cusickiani, but in them the adventitious roots arise only from subterranean nodes. The species is evidently very local and has not been collected, to my knowledge, within the past fifty years. Probably its numbers have become depleted by expansion of Mexico City and especially by alteration of the water table in the Valley of Mexico and consequent desiccation of the meadows where it formerly found a home.
The earliest known collection of var. radicans is one in the Sesse and Mociño collection (No. 3763, MA), made probably in the last decade of the XVIII century. There are duplicates at BM (ex herb. Ruiz & Pavón) and (labeled "Nueva España") at OXF.
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Objects
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Distribution
Distrito Federal Mexico North America|