Astragalus Robbinsii var. Fernaldi

  • Title

    Astragalus Robbinsii var. Fernaldi

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus robbinsii var. fernaldii (Rydb.) Barneby

  • Description

    7f. Astragalus Robbinsii var. Fernaldi

    Low, decumbent or weakly ascending, the stems 1.3-3 dm. long; leaves 3.5-8 cm. long, with 9-17 leaflets 7-22 mm. long, cinereous beneath with subappressed or narrowly ascending hairs up to 0.35-07 mm. long, at least thinly pubescent toward the margins above, sometimes the whole upper surface strigulose; peduncles 4-10.5 cm. long; racemes 7-20-flowered, not greatly elongating, the axis 1.2-6 (8) cm. long in fruit; calyx rather densely white- or black-strigulose, 4.5-6.5 mm. long, the tube 3.2-4 mm., the teeth 1.5-2.5 mm. long; petals purplish or grayish- lilac; banner ± 9-10 mm. long; stipe of the pod 1.2-3 mm. long, the body 1-1.8 cm. long, 4-5.5 mm. in diameter, abruptly contracted into a beak 1.5-2 mm. long, the valves densely and loosely strigulose-pilosulous with black or white hairs up to 0.25-0.55 mm. long, the septum 0.2-0.8 mm. wide; ovules 8-10.—Collections: 5 (o); representative: Waghorne (from Labrador) in 1894 (NY); Fernald & Long 28,593 (GH); Wiegand, Gilbert & Hotchkiss 28,597 (GH, K, NY); Penson (from Cook’s Harbor) in 1941 (US).

    Limestone or calcareous sandstone terraces and rocky or turfy bluffs near the coast, local, known only from the Straits of Belle Isle, northwestern Newfoundland, southern Labrador, and far eastern Quebec.—Map No. 5.—June to August.

    Astragalus Robbinsii var. Fernaldi (Rydb.), stat. nov., based on Atelophragma Fernaldi (Merritt Lyndon Fernald, 1873—1950) Rydb. in Bull. Torr. Club 55: 126. 1928. "Blanc Sablon, Labrador, Aug. 6, 1910, Fernald 3632."—Holotypus, collected by Fernald with K. M. Wiegand, NY! isotypi, GH (2 sheets), US!—Astragalus Fernaldi (Rydb.) H. F. Lewis in Canad. Field Nat. 46: 36. 1932.

    The Fernald milk-vetch was described by Rydberg as related to A. Macounii (= our var. minor), supposedly differing in its white-hairy calyx and pod, longer calyx-teeth, and leaflets pubescent above as well as beneath. The relationship is a close one, although a larger sample of Cordilleran var. Blakei has shown since Rydberg’s day that the calyx-teeth vary in length more than was thought, while the color of the hairs in the inflorescence is as always a fallible and superficial character, the common color in var. Fernaldi being black or predominantly black as in other forms of its species. A relatively compact raceme and leaflets pubescent above at least near the margins, sometimes over the whole surface, further distinguish var. Fernaldi from short-stipitate var. minor of the Rocky Mountains. In the eastern form of var. minor and in other varieties found in New England, the stipe of the pod is longer.

    Because of its pale pubescence and inconspicuous stipe concealed by the marcescent calyx, the typus of var. Fernaldi is highly suggestive of some forms of A. eucosmus, for which Fernald himself mistook it, and from which Rousseau (1933, p. 38) has suggested that it arose by mutation. Rydberg stated that it differed from A. eucosmus in its longer and more acute pod and larger flower, but both can be matched closely for size and shape by some Cordilleran material of A. eucosmus (cf. Moodie 50, NY), and I can find no firm distinction other than the development in var. Fernaldi of the definite stipe. In the material of var. Fernaldi from the coast of Newfoundland the stipe is a little longer and better developed, and these populations are certainly part of the A. Robbinsii complex. According to Rousseau (1933, p. 39) the earliest collection of the Fernald milk-vetch (Labrador, without locality, Miss Brodie) dates back to the year 1863.