H. ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS: The collection 

 label information indicated that the species was heavily browsed by horses and cattle. 

 This species is variously described as an increaser or decreaser elsewhere in its range, 

 depending on range site and location. 



SUMMARY: Leadplant is a distinctive range plant which apparently acts as a decreaser in 

 the Ashland District setting and which should be added to the watch list. 



Astragalus barrii Barneby 



BARR'S MILKVETCH 



Fabaceae 



The following text represents an update to the species' status report prepared for the Custer 

 National Forest (Schassberger 1990). It focuses on information which has been expanded or 

 revised from the previous work in the course of this study. 



A. PRESENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 

 L FEDERAL STATUS 



a. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: Category 3C (USDI Fish 

 And Wildlife Ser\'ice 1993). This signifies that the species has 

 "proven to be more abundant or widespread than previously 

 believed and/or... (is) not subject to any identifiable threat." 



b. U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Sensitive (Forest Service 1995). 



2. STATE: G3 S3 (imperiled or \ailnerable in the state). With fewer than 100 



occurrences, the species would typically be considered "imperiled;" however, 

 almost half of its 30 knowTi occurrences are on national forest lands, where it is 

 recognized as "sensitive," and where habitat threats are limited. 



B. DESCRIPTION: Information on local field characters has been augmented to 

 differentiate between Astragalus barrii and A. hyalinus; the latter is newly 

 documented fi-om the study area. Nontechnical and technical descriptions are 

 reprinted for reference from Schassberger (1990). 



L GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Astragalus barrii forms 



dense mats (cushions), which rarely exceed 10.2 cm (4 in.) in height (Figure 5; 

 Appendix E-1). Prostrate woody stems give rise to numerous leaves, each 

 made up of 3 narrowly elliptic leaflets that are 1-4 cm (3/8-1 Vi in) long. Both 



15 



