Astragalus serenoi (Kuntze) E.Sheld. var. serenoi
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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
"West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada; 5000 feet altitude; May, June. 280."—Holotypus, collected in 1868, US! isotypi, GH, NY!
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Synonyms
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Tragacantha serenoi Kuntze, Astragalus nudus S.Watson, Astragalus oblatus E.Sheld., , Brachyphragma serenoi (Kuntze) Rydb., Astragalus shockleyi M.E.Jones, Brachyphragma shockleyi (M.E.Jones) Rydb., Astragalus canonis M.E.Jones
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Description
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Variety Description - Stems 2-4.5 dm. long; leaves 5-15 cm. long; peduncles (7) 10-25 cm. long; racemes (3) 7-25-flowered, the axis (2) 5-20 cm. long; banner 17-26 mm. long, 7.4-12 mm. wide; wings 14.7-19.8 mm., the claws 6.6-10 mm., the blades 8.2-11 mm. long, 2.3-3.1 mm. wide; keel 12.4—18.5 mm. long, the claws 6.4-11.5 mm., the blades 5.9-7.5 mm. long, 2.8-3.4 mm. wide; pod plumply oblong in outline, 1.7-3.1 cm. long, 7-10.5 (12) mm. in diameter, straight or slightly incurved but the salient sutures nearly parallel, abruptly contracted at apex into a stout, pungent cusp; seeds 2.8-3.3 mm. long.
Distribution and Ecology - Open places on dry hillsides and on canyon benches, in gravelly, alkaline clay soils, associated with sagebrush and piñon-juniper forest (4700) 5000-7400 feet, local but forming colonies, western Nevada, from the West Humboldt Mountains, Pershing County, south to the Palmetto Range and White Mountains in Esmeralda County and the Inyo and Cottonwood Mountains in Inyo County, California.—Map. No. 68.—May to July, the fruit often persisting over winter on stiff, dead stems.
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Discussion
The naked milk-vetch, var. Serenoi, a tall astragalus readily recognized by its wiry, bushy- branching habit of growth, few, narrow, distantly disposed leaflets usually silvery above and greenish beneath, and loose racemes of rather long but narrow, purple flowers giving rise to plumply or narrowly oblong, subterete fruits of fleshy, ultimately ligneous texture, is conspicuously variable only in the length and amplitude of the pod. The plants described by Jones as A. Shockleyi and A. canonis represent the extremes of variation, the former having a relatively short and narrow, the latter an exceptionally large and broad pod; but neither can be detached from the uninterrupted series of intermediate states of which Watsons original A. nudus forms a part. The populations of var. Serenoi found near the east base of the Wassuk Range above Walker Lake, from which the typus of A. canonis was taken, are unusually vigorous and some have relatively broad, linear-lanceolate rather than truly linear leaflets. In his summary account of the genus Jones (1923, p. 150) reduced A. Shockleyi to the synonymy of A. Serenoi and suggested that A. canonis was probably no more than a form of the same, an opinion borne out by subsequent exploration of western Nevada. The differential characters attributed by Rydberg (1929, p. 399, in clave) to Brachyphragma Shockleyi have proved of no practical use. The variation in the fruit is well illustrated by Jones s figures on Plates 32 and 74 of his Revision.
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Objects
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Distribution
Nevada United States of America North America| California United States of America North America|