The perianth consists of a fused, five lobed calyx and a 

 cream to yellowish corolla which includes a banner (the 

 top segment), two wings (the side segments), and a keel 

 (the boat shaped bottom segment). There are 10 stamens, 

 nine connected in a group and one free, and a single 

 ovary. The mature fruit is a distinctively stalked 

 legume which contains several seeds. Figure 5 is an 

 illustration of the species, and photographic slides of 

 the plant are attached at the end of this report. 



2. Technical species description (quoted from Hitchcock and 

 Cronquist 1961): Sparsely strigillose perennial with a 

 taproot and branched crown; stems several, stout, 

 ascending to erect, 2-6 dm tall; leaves 10-25 cm long; 

 stipules lanceolate, 1-4 mm long, not connate; leaflets 

 15-21, lance-oblong to elliptic-oblong, 1.5-3.5 cm long, 

 as much as 13 mm broad, glabrous on the upper surface at 

 least; peduncles mostly 10-15 cm long; racemes closely 

 15- to 30-flowered but elongating and open in fruit; 

 pedicels 2-5 mm long; flowers spreading to slightly 

 reflexed, white to ochroleucous, about 2 cm long; calyx 

 usually blackish-hairy, 8-10 mm long, the narrowly 

 lanceolate lower teeth about 2 mm long; banner erect; 

 wings 2-4 mm longer than the keel; pod erect, with a 

 stout upward-arching stipe about twice as long as the 

 calyx, the body 1.5-2 cm long, cartilaginous, glabrous, 

 slightly mottled, corrugate-wrinkled, oblong-ovoid, 

 inflated and slightly obcompressed, 4-6 mm broad, 6-10 mm 

 thick, with both sutures sulcate, the lower intruded to 

 form a 3/4 complete partition. 



3. Diagnostic characters: The following combination of 

 characters separates this from other Montana species of 

 Astragalus (adapted from Dorn 1984): 



-Leaflets more than 5, not awl shaped 



-Hairs attached at their base 



-Stipules not united on side of stem opposite the petiole 



-Pods stipitate, glabrous, obcompressed with the lower 



suture nearly forming a partition within the fruit, 

 7-20 mm wide, less than 3 times as long as wide 



-Calyx 8-12.5 mm long, banner more than 15 mm long 



B. PRESENT LEGAL AND OTHER STATUS 



1. Federal 



a. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: 3C (UDSI Fish and 

 Wildlife Service 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." 



17 



