Astragalus miser var. hylophilus (Rydb.) Barneby
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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
"Montana: Bridger Mountains, July [June] 17, 1897, P. A. Rydberg & Ernst A. Bessey 4490 ... "—Holotypus, NY! isotypi, GH, K, ND, PH, US!
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Synonyms
Homalobus hylophilus Rydb., Astragalus hylophilus (Rydb.) A.Nelson, Astragalus campestris var. hylophilus (Rydb.) M.E.Jones, Astragalus convallarius var. hylophilus (Rydb.) Tidestr.
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Description
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Variety Description - Usually low, tufted, the stems 1-12 cm. long; herbage thinly strigulose- pilosulous with appressed or some narrowly ascending, straight hairs up to (0.3) 0.35-0.55 (0.6) mm. long, green, the leaflets glabrous or quite exceptionally thinly pubescent toward the margins above; leaves (3) 4.5-19 cm. long, with (9) 1121 ("25") narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, lance-oblong, or broadly oval (the extremes often on the same plant), acute, obtuse and mucronulate, obtuse, or rarely retuse, flat, thin-textured leaflets (3) 5-26 mm. long, the terminal one either contiguous to or remote from the last pair, commonly jointed to the rachis, the joint sometimes obscure, rarely obsolete; racemes (3) 6-16-flowered, the axis (1) 1.5-7 cm. long in fruit; calyx (3.8) 4-5.6 mm. long, the tube 2.6-3.5 mm., the teeth (0.9) 1-2.3 mm. long; petals whitish, the banner sometimes lavender-veined, the keel-tip maculate; banner (5.2) 6.5-13 mm. long, (5.7) 6.2-9.2 wide; wings (6.6) 12-9.5 mm. long, the claws (2.3) 2.5-3.4 mm., the blades (4.6) 5.3-6.9 mm. long, (1.9) 2.2-3 mm. wide; keel (7.1) 8-10 (11.4) mm. long, the claws 2.4-3.5 mm., the blades (4.9) 5.4-7 (8.5) mm. long, 2.2-3 mm. wide; pod (1.5) 1.8-2.5 cm. long, 2.5-4 mm. in diameter, exactly linear, linear-elliptic, or commonly by a trifle widest above the middle and thus linear-oblanceolate in profile, the apex erect or not greatly oblique, the whole straight or a little arched either way, the valves glabrous or exceptionally puberulent with a few scattered, usually black hairs; ovules (6) 7-11.
Distribution and Ecology - Mountain meadows, grassy banks, open parklands, and forested slopes, with lodgepole pine or Douglas fir, sometimes in yellow pine forest, rarely on cliff ledges, open rocky crests, or in moist soil along mountain brooks, mostly within the timber belt but coming out onto dry hillsides with sagebrush, or onto road cuts, with no apparent rock-preference, 3200-9500 feet, common and locally abundant in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, from Lewis and Clark and Lake Counties south to the Wind River and Grand Teton ranges in western Wyoming, extending feebly west into eastern Idaho; apparently isolated on the Black Hills, South Dakota.—Map No. 19.—June to August.
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Discussion
In the mountains of western Montana southward approximately from the latitude of Great Falls to the headwaters of the Green and Snake Rivers in western Wyoming, the var. hylophilus is one of the commonest astragali. As the epithet implies, it is characteristic of the timber belt, being replaced in the intervening valleys and (largely) in arid microhabitats within the timber zone by other varieties of the species, all distinguished by gray- or silvery-strigulose herbage and pubescent fruits. Of these sympatric but ecologically separated forms, var. praeteritus and var. decumbens differ further in the attachment of the hairs, whereas var. miser, with basifixed vesture, is commonly a taller plant with purple or purplish flowers. In most cases var. hylophilus is recognized at sight by its green leaflets of broad outline and thin texture, and by its whitish flowers of moderate or (for the species) large size. In dry situations and at low elevations, however, the leaflets of some or even all leaves may become narrow and firm; plants of this sort simulate phases of the more southern vicariant var. oblongifolius, although they still differ in the glabrous few-ovulate pod. There are a few examples on record, from the Grand Tetons and the Yellowstone Park region, of var. hylophilus with thinly black- or white-strigulose pod (e.g., E. & L. Payson 2068, CAS, NY), but these minor variants, which suggest another type of transition into var. oblongifolius, have the characteristic ample foliage and few ovules of their sort. In extreme northwest Montana, var. hylophilus apparently passes into the very closely related but ordinarily taller and smaller-flowered var. serotinus. The plant from the Black Hills is the common Cordilleran type.
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Objects
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Distribution
Montana United States of America North America| Wyoming United States of America North America| Idaho United States of America North America| South Dakota United States of America North America|