Astragalus ceramicus var. ceramicus

  • Title

    Astragalus ceramicus var. ceramicus

  • Author(s)

    Rupert C. Barneby

  • Scientific Name

    Astragalus ceramicus E.Sheld. var. ceramicus

  • Description

    89c. Astragalus ceramicus var. ceramicus

    Leaves 2-12 (15) cm. long, at least the lowest and sometimes all bearing 1-6 pairs of lateral leaflets, but the uppermost ones quite often reduced to the naked rachis; racemes 6—15 (25)-flowered, the axis (1) 1.5—8 (15) cm. long in fruit; calyx 3.1—4.2 (5.7) mm. long the tube 2.1—2.6 (3.3) mm., the teeth 1-1.8 (2.4) mm. long; banner 6.3-8.3 (9.5) mm. long, 6-7.5 (9) mm. wide; wings 6-7.7 (8.3) mm. long, the claws 2-3 mm., the blades 4.3-5.6 (6) mm. long, 2.1-3.2 (3.7) mm. wide; keel 6.4-7.6 (8.4) mm. long, the claws 2.1-3.2 mm., the blades 4.2-5 (6) mm. long, 2-2.5 (2.8) mm. wide; stipe of the pod (1) 1.5-3.3 mm. long, the body ellipsoid, ovoid, or subglobose, (1.2) 1.5-3 cm. long, (5) 6—15 mm. in diameter; seeds (2.1) 2.4—3.1 mm. long.—Collections: 60 (xiv); representative: Holmgren & Hansen 3434 (NY, UTC); Peebles & Smith 13,899 (CAS, NY); J. T. Howell 24,433, 24,522 (CAS, RSA); A. & G. Heller 3572 (ND, OB, WS); Ripley & Barneby 5288 (CAS, RSA), 5303 (NY, RSA).

    Mobile dunes, sandy plains, sand pockets and gullied talus at the foot of cliffs, sandy badlands, rarely on cinder cones, characteristically associated with red and white sandstones, 4600—7000 feet, widespread and rather common in the Colorado Basin southward from the Uintah Mountains, Utah, northern Arizona, and southwestern Colorado, extending southeast across the Continental Divide from the San Juan River to the upper Rio Grande in northwestern New Mexico; occasionally west of the Wahsatch Plateau in westcentral, northcentral, and southwestern Utah.—Map No. 33.—Late April to July.

    Astragalus ceramicus (of pottery, from the painted pod) Sheld. in Minn. Bot. Stud. 1: 19. 1894, a legitimate substitute for A. pictus (Gray) Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. 6: 214. 1864 (non Bss. & Gaill., 1859), based on Phaca picta (painted, of the mottled pod) Gray in Mem. Amer. Acad. II, 4 (Pl. Fendl.): 37. 1849.—" ... on the banks of the Rio del Norte... April (in flower) and June (in fruit), No. 161."—Holotypus, Pl. Novo-Mexicanae 161, collected by August Fendler in 1847, GH! isotypi, BM, K, MO (dated "May"), NY, OXF, P, PH!—A. pictus var. foliolosus (bearing leaflets) Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. 6: 215. 1864, an exact synonym designating Phaca picta sens. str. Tragacantha picta (Gray) O. Kze., Rev. Gen. 947. 1891 ("pictus"). A. foliolosus (Gray) Sheld. in Minn. Bot. Stud. 1: 138. 1894 (non Bunge, 1869). A. angustus var. pictus (Gray) Jones in Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. II, 5: 635. 1895. A. angustus var. ceramicus (Sheld.) Jones, Contrib. West. Bot. 10: 62. 1902.

    Astragalus pictus var. angustus (narrow, of the pod) Jones in Zoë 4: 37. 1893.—"Montezuma Canon, Utah, May, 1892, Miss Alice Eastwood."—Holotypus, Eastwood 7, POM! isotypus, US!—A. ceramicus var. Jonesii (Marcus Eugene Jones) Sheld. in Minn. Bot. Stud. 1: 19. 1894, a superfluous, illegitimate substitute for var. angustus, misread as "angustatus" and supposedly antedated by A. angustatus Bss. A. angustus (Jones) Jones in Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. II, 5: 635. 1895.

    Astragalus pictus var. magnus (large, of the swollen pod) Jones, Rev. Astrag. 109, Pl. 12. 1923.—"My specimens No. 5160 from Silver Reef Utah constitute the type."—Holotypus, collected May 3, 1894, POM! isotypi, MO (dated "May 6"), NY, P, RM!

    The nomenclaturally typical form of A. ceramicus has comparatively short and little- swollen pods combined with developed lateral leaflets in all or in most leaves. The populations known from the upper Rio Grande Valley are of this sort, but an ellipsoid pod of the same type is found here and there across northern Arizona and southern Utah, associated either with many pinnate leaves or with simple phyllodes. Leaves of both sorts may sometimes be found in the same locality (e.g., the holotypus of var. angustus), although this has been seldom observed. Jones described var. magnus upon discovering that his var. angustus was equivalent to the original Phaca picta; it was intended to cover the same ground as var. filifolius Gray. In the strict sense, however, var. magnus is the minor variant of var. ceramicus characterized by an ovoid or globose fruit and many dolabriform hairs. It is as common as the angustus variant in northern Arizona but extends to the limits of the variety in western Utah. Pods of the greatly inflated type may also be associated with either simple or pinnate foliage, and the forms with many phyllodes closely simulate var. filifolius from the prairie states. The few populations known from the Uinta Basin in extreme northeastern Utah and adjoining Colorado have the greatly swollen pod and high ovule-number (± 23) of genuine var. filifolius but have been referred to var. ceramicus because of the dolabriform vesture.