stiped and short-beaked, the body 4-winged the full length, the wings about 3 mm. 

 broad. Daubentonia Drummondii Rydb. 



Coastal Plain in Tex., inland to Denton, Williamson, Travis, Comal, Wilson, 

 McMullen and Starr cos., locally very abundant, June-Sept.; Coastal States, Fla. 

 to Ver. and inland to S.L.P. 



The seeds are loose in the mature pods which rattle when the bush is in mo- 

 tion, hence the common name. The seeds, if eaten, are known to be poisonous 

 to sheep and goats. 



13. Astragalus L. Milk-vetch. Loco Weed 



Unarmed perennial or annual herbs, caulescent or not, leaves once-impari- 

 pinnately compound, petioled; stipules present, often well-developed and forming 

 sheaths or other structures but never spinescent in our species, leaflets several 

 to many; stipels absent; flowers in axillary racemes (rarely single), often these 

 nearly spikelike; calyx with a campanuloid to cylindric tube and 5 equal to un- 

 equal deltoid to setaceous lobes; corolla papilionaceous, white, yellow to purplish 

 or lavender, never red; banner reflexed, the blade oblanceolate to broadly cuneate, 

 claw present; wings clawed, the blade auricled at the base on the upper side 

 and with a depression; keel petals coalescent distally, the blades auricled basally 

 and with a low prominence which fits into the wing's socket; keel petals obtuse 

 to acute; stamens diadelphous, 9 of the filaments coalescent, the tenth (upper- 

 most) one free; fruit a linear to globose dry to fleshy (often very tardily) dehiscent 

 legume exserted from the calyx; dehiscence sometimes occurs after the fruit has 

 fallen to the ground; seeds 1 to several. 



A very large, diflScult genus with about 1,500 species occurring throughout 

 the subtropical and temperate parts of the world except Australia. Many plants 

 of this genus accumulate selenium ions in toxic concentrations, and when ingested 

 in sufficient quantity by stock cause the symptoms known as "loco disease;" other 

 species which do not accumulate selenium are useful forage. The hard seeds of 

 many species are eaten by various game birds. 



I. Flowers 7-12 mm. long, spreading or drooping in an elongate lax raceme, 

 shortly pedicelled; stipules deltoid 1. A. alpinus. 



1. Flowers about 17 (13-19) mm. long, subsessile in closely crowded ovoid 

 heads; stipules linear to ovate 2. A. dasyglottis. 



1. Astragalus alpinus L. 



Sparsely to densely strigillose to silky (but usually greenish) perennial with 

 widespread rootstocks; stems slender, ascending to erect, 5-20 cm. long; leaves 

 5-15 cm. long; stipules 1-3 mm. long, deltoid, all except the uppermost connate; 

 leaflets 13 to 23, ovate to oblong-elliptic, often retuse, 5-15 mm. long, rarely 

 as much as 10 mm. broad; peduncles equaling or exceeding the leaves; racemes 

 closely 10- to 30-flowered, elongate, lax, often secund in fruit; pedicels about 

 1 mm. long; flowers 7-12 mm. long, pale-lilac to purplish, the keel usually darkest 

 in color (about equaling the erect banner, both longer than the wings); calyx 

 black-hairy, 3-4.5 mm. long, the teeth about half the length of the tube; pod 

 usually pendulous (spreading), with a slender stipe about equal to the calyx 

 teeth, the body black-hairy, membranous, narrowly ellipsoid, 8-12 mm. long, 

 cordate-triangular in cross section, the lower suture deeply sulcate and intruded 

 to form a nearly complete partition. 



In wet meadows, on open grassy slopes and in open woodlands, in N.M. (Rio 

 Arriba, San Miguel and Taos cos.), May-Aug.; Mont, to Wash., s. to N.M. and 

 Nev.; circumpolar. 



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