PEA FAMILY 



347 



Pods cylindric or teretish, curved, green, grooved on the back; style in fruit short, 



curved or hooked, 14 to Y^q as long as body of pod 67. A. tener. 



Pods laterally compressed, incompletely 2-celled, grooved dorsally. 



Pods linear-attenuate, straight or curved, 2 inches long; North Coast Eanges 



68. A. rattanii. 

 Pods linear, % inch long, curved; deserts 69. A. nuttallianus. 



1. A. whitneyi Gray. Balloon Plant. (Fig. 207.) Stems tufted, 3 to 9 

 (or 12) inches high, from a woody base ; herbage greenish to gray, somewhat stri- 

 gose or hirsute-pubescent; leaves % to 2i/^ (or 4) inches long; leaflets 13 to 19, 



distant, discrete or often crowded, linear to 

 linear-oblong, 3 to 5 (or 7) lines long; flowers 

 whitish or violet, 4 to 5 lines long, very short- 

 pediceled, in racemes; racemes capitate, mod- 

 erately dense, % to 1^/4 inches long; calyx- 

 teeth subulate, % as long as the campanulate 

 tube ; corolla whitish or violet ; pods strongly 

 inflated, obovate, rounded at apex or very ob- 

 tuse (balloon-shaped), 1-celled, % to II/2 or 

 2% inches long, glabrous or scantily puberu- 

 lent, mottled (at least when young), about 10- 

 seeded, the stipe longer than the calyx. 



Mountain slopes, 5000 to 12,000 feet : Mt. 

 Pinos; crests and east side of Sierra Nevada 

 from Tulare Co. to Modoc Co. ; Yollo Bolly Mts. 

 to the Trinity Mts., mner North Coast Range. 

 Western Nevada to eastern Washington. July, 

 fr. July- Aug. 



Geog. note. — The balloon-like fruits of Astraga- 

 lus whitneyi are very remarkable and peculiar, and 

 mark it well throughout its range. The original col- 

 lection of the species represents, in a strict sense, a 

 form of the east slope of the Sierra Nevada in Mono 

 Co. with green or greenish scantily strigose herbage. 

 Plants with more hairs in a varied degree and often 

 with looser hairs are conspecific; the leaflets may be 

 somewhat approximate or distant. The following sta- 

 tions are here cited: Mt. Pinos (var. pinosus Elmer) ; 

 Kaweah Mdws., Tulare Co., Purpus 1799; Lundy, Mono Co., Maud Minthorn; Mt. Warren, Mono 

 Co., Congdon; White Mts., Mono Co., ShocMey (herbage grayish or greenish) ; Sonora Pass, 

 A. L. Grant 335; Lake Tahoe vicinity, F. de Witt-Warr. Also Mt. Rose, Washoe Co., Nev., 

 Kennedy 1185 (herbage rather gray). 



Plants with short leaves, broader crowded leaflets and gray-hirsute herbage represent the 

 state called var. sonneanus Jepson comb, n.: Deer Park, Placer Co., Kelen D. Geis; Castle Peak, 

 Nevada Co., Sonne; South Yollo Bolly, North Coast Eanges, Jepson 13,746; Trinity Mts. (18 mi. 

 nw. of La Moine), E. R. Sheppard. 



In all the above forms the pods are small (l^ to 1% inches long). The larger-podded form, 

 typical of the state called A. hookerianus Gray, has pods IV2 to 21/3 inches long and % to IVi 

 inches wide ; it is found on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada (Andrews Camp., nw. Inyo Co., 

 E. Brandegee; Susanville, Lassen Co., T. Brandegee; Dixey Mts., Lassen Co., M. S. Baker; 

 Goose Lake, Modoc Co., B. M. Austin) and extends north to Washington. 



In the species Astragalus whitneyi, as here accepted, there is variation in amount and 

 character of pubescence, in size of plants and in size of pods, in shape of leaflets and in approxi- 

 mation or remoteness of leaflets. No combination of these characters is consistently associated, 

 so that it is impossible to separate the group into two or more definite units of even varietal 

 value. While the large pods of the A. hookerianus form are very striking, we find every inter- 

 grade to the small pods of A. whitneyi. Intergrades occur as to all characters noted. We do not 

 find any geographic segregation of significance. 



Eefs. — Astragalus whitneyi Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 6:526 (1865), type loc. mts. near 

 Sonora Pass, Brewer 1886. Tragacantha whitneyi Ktze. Eev. Gen. PI. 2:949 (1891). Phaca 

 whitneyi Hel. Muhl. 9:67 (1913). A. hookerianus var. whitneyi Jones, Proe. Cal. Acad. ser. 2, 

 5:668 (1895); Jepson, Man. 564 (1925). ^. wMineyi var. ptwosMo^ Elmer, Bot. Gaz. 39:54 (1905), 



Fig. 207. Astragalus whitneyi 

 Gray, a, habit, X Vs ; &, A-, X iy2 ; 

 c, pod, y.%; d, cross sect, of pod, X %. 



