71 



stems very short and flexuous, ascending, slender, densely tufted, 

 many, branched below, sulcate and green like the peduncles and 

 leaves. Roots thick and woody. Grows on gravelly mesas and can- 

 ons in open places where it is very dry. Blooms in May. Throughout 

 the northern part of the Navajo Basin and as far east as Grand 

 Junction Colorado. Rare outside of the Navajo Basin. . Also on the 

 ujiper Sevier river at Vermilion Utah and in Tintic Valley near 

 Mammoth. Lower Temperate life zone. 



Astragalus Coltoni var. Moabensis Jones Cont. 8 11 (1898). 

 a foot high, leafy, the leaflets all jointed to rachis and elliptical to 

 linear. Pods obliquely linear-elliptical, about 2 cm, long and 4 mm. 

 high, rather abruptly contracted at both ends, with stipe about 

 as long as calyx or twice as long. Flowers brilliant-purple, with elon- 

 gated banner. Calyx teeth 2 mm long. Moab and Westwater Utah. 

 First collected by Miss Eastwood. Very common in the lower edge of 

 the Middle Temperate life zone on the La Sals in the sagebrush. 

 Poisonous to hogs. 



Astragalus Coltoni var. aphyllus n. var. Leaflets none, the whole 

 Plant a mass of filiform and tapering leaf rachises. Richfield Utah 

 in the red sandstone cliffs. A connecting form in the San Rafael 

 Swell. 



4. Astragalus stenophyllus T. & G. Fl. 1 329 (1838). A. filipes 

 Gray A. leptophyllus Nutt., Phaca Piper, Homalobus Rydberg. Pods 

 1.2-4 cm. long, 4-6 mm. high, broadly linear, width about equal 

 throughout, triangular at both ends, or rarely acuminate, delicately 

 reticulated but chiefly so in the middle, with cross-section diamond- 

 shaped to ovate when fresh and with both sutures raised externally and 

 not at all produced within, about straight and a little oblique, opening 

 first at base and with stipe dividing; sutures equally arched. Stipe 

 2-4 times the calyx. Pcds generally pendent but sometimes horizontal 

 Flowers about 1-1.5 cm. long, loosely racemose, ascending, with ex- 

 serted claws, light-cream-colored. Banner short, arched to 45 to 90 de- 

 grees 2 mm. beyond calyx teeth, triangular-ovate to oblong, 7-10 mm. 

 longer than keel, expanded and thickened at base as in A. Beck- 

 withii, acutely notched, sides reflexed a little, groove very shallow 

 broadly v-shaped, about 2 mm. wide, a little wider below. Wings obo- 

 vate to lanceolate, ascending 45 degrees and exposing base of keel, 

 concave to keel, entire or obscurely toothed at the rounded tip, 1-3 mm. 

 longer than keel and nearly as long as banner. Keel with straight 

 base and tip sharply rounded to a half circle and the blunt end pointing 

 inward, about 3 mm. high, yellow. Calyx about 3 mm. wide and 4 mm. 

 long, almost campanulate, nearly equally inserted at the acutish fleshy 

 base, greenish-white, oblique at tip and cleft deeper above and with 

 broad sinuses and minute deltoid blackish teeth. Pedicels 2-7 mm. long, 

 mostly filiform, much longer than the minute hyaline ovate bracts. 

 Peduncles 2-3 dm. long, much longer than the leaves, barely sulcate 

 as are the stems, the floral rachis about half as long and 10-20 flowered. 

 Leaves hardly 1 dm. long, rather scattered but longer than the slender 

 internodes. Leaflets 5-8 pairs, distant, about linear, 1. 5-4 cm. long, thin, 

 obtuse, rather cuneate at base and on white petiolules, green as are 

 the stems and peduncles. Stipules small, the upper ones green, reflexed 

 subulate from a deltoid base, free, those below hyaline and inclined to 

 connate opposite the petioles. Stems very slender and erect In ra 

 ther dense tufts, branching aT)0ve. many, about 2 ft. high. Pubescence 

 almost none. Growing in the Middle Temperate life zone and extend- 

 ing down a little into the Lower, in open gravelly slopes and blooming 

 in summer. Throuc;hout the Columbia Basin as far east as Blackfoot 

 Idaho, throughout the northern part of the Great Basin as fnr east as 

 Muncy Spring Valley Nevada and westward to the western side of the 

 Sierras at least on both Shasta slopes and northward. Common in 

 the northwest, on prairies and in the sagebrush. 



