to early June, and later form one- to few-seeded 

 pods. See Section V pp. 57-61 for color photos of 

 plants and habitat. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Perennial, low cushion 

 forming plant, up to 1.5 dm (4.5 dm) in diameter, 

 with stems reduced to leafy crowns that arise from 

 a closely forking suf f ruticulose caudex; herbage 

 silvery-strigose with dolabriform hairs up to 1- 

 1.4 mm long; stipules 4-8 mm long, glabrous 

 dorsally; leaves 1-4 cm long, the 3 leaflets 

 linear-oblanceolate, oblanceolate or elliptic- 

 obovate acute or acutish, 3-12 mm long; peduncles 

 slender, 7-16 mm long, and shorter than the 

 leaves; raceme loose, 2-4 (1) flowered, with the 

 fruiting axis up to 5-15 mm long; calyx 5.5-7.1 

 (4.6) mm long, the deeply campanulate or 

 subcylindric tube 3.6-5.1 mm long, the teeth 1.5- 

 2.4 (1.2) mm long; petals pink-purple, the 

 obovate-cuneate or broadly oblanceolate banner 

 10.5-16.7 (9.6) mm long; wings 9.1-13.5 mm long, 

 the claws 4.1-5.5 mm; anthers 0.5-0.7 (0.45) mm 

 long; pod narrowly lance-ellipsoid, 4.5-6.5 mm 

 long, 1.2-1.8 mm in diameter just above the 

 rounded base and tapering into a slightly incurved 

 lance-subulate beak about as long as the fertile 

 portion, obscurely triguetrous in the lower half, 

 somewhat flattened dorsally, the valves papery, 

 silvery-strigulose; ovules 9-11 (7) ; seeds (often 

 only one maturing) oblong, scarcely compressed, 

 dull purplish-green, smooth but not lustrous, 

 about 2 mm long (adapted from Barneby, 1956) . 



LOCAL FIELD CHARACTERS: Astragalus barrii is 

 most easily identified in flower, and is 

 distinguished by its small bluish-purple to 

 bluish-pink flowers, compound leaves with 3 

 leaflets, and mat forming habit. 



Vegetatively, Astragalus barrii is similar to A. 

 gilvif lorus , A. hyalinus and A. aretioides , and 

 they overlap in their geographic distributions. 

 However, in the field A. barrii is distinctive for 

 its small, iridescent bluish-purple to bluish-pink 

 flowers. Astragalus gilvif lorus and A. hyalinus 

 on the other hand, have much larger flowers, the 

 former cream to yellowish in color, and the latter 

 white with a lilac tinge. The field 

 characteristics of A. aretioides are most similar 

 to A. barrii ; however, this species has smaller 

 flowers and is found at higher elevations. 



