Lonchocarpi. 252 



by being reversed curved at tip, linear-oblanceolate to broadly lin- 

 ear, 3-6 cm. lonj?, 5-7 mm. wide above the middle, obcompressed 

 ventrally and with a slight concavity but not bisulcate, cross section 

 often flat to deltoid, hairy within, a little inflated, chartaceous to 

 leathery, apiculate to very acute at tip and narrowed to a very 

 broad pseudostipe at base. Ventral suture a little raised, dorsal 

 impressed. Pod reddish to green. Common on the sandy mesas 

 from 13 miles below Theodore, Utah, to Chepeta Well, Colorado, 

 and the White river. Lower Temperate life zone. A. pinonis Jones 

 is very liable to be this species when that species is better known, 

 but so far the calyx teeth are very much longer and pod not ob- 

 compressed. 



214. Astragalus lonchocarpus Torr. Pac. R. R. Rep. 4 80 

 (1857). Phaca macrocarpa Gray PI. Fend. 36 (1849). Tragacan- 

 tha lonchocarpa (Torr.) Kuntze, Homalobus macrocarpus (Gray) 

 Rydberg. Pods about straight, 5-7 mm. wide, sharply acuminate at 

 both ends and long-acuminate at base, broadly linear-oblanceolate 

 to even linear-elliptical, faintly cross-ribbed, with both sutures very 

 prominent when dry, fleshy and oblately oval in cross section when 

 fresh and pods with woody fibers running lengthwise which appear 

 as red dots in the pulp of cross sections; dorsal suture raised 

 and nerve-like; stipe at least twice the calyx. Flowers many, pearl- 

 white and rather fleshy, rarely purple, loose, horizontal to reflexed, 

 1-1.5 cm. long, with rather broad blades. Banner arched to 90-110^ 

 3 mm. beyond the calyx teeth in a gentle arc, 7 mm. longer than 

 keel, oblique, narrowly oblong from a broad base; groove narrowly 

 U-shaped, 1 mm. wide, 1.5 mm. deep and extending to calyx tips, ' 

 shallower above and open. Wings linear but wider 2 mm. below 

 tip, arched so as to cover the center of keel, 2 mm. wide, flat to 

 keel but concave beyond it, not spreading, close-pressed to it and 

 5 mm. longer. Keel bent in a sharp curve to 100', with straight 

 base, the erect part 3-4 mm. high and as long as the base, mostly 

 purple-tipped but yellowish otherwise. Calyx tube 5-7 mm. long, 

 nearly cylindric, hyaline, 2 mm. high, 1.5 mm. wide, with thickened 

 and green bracteolate and oblique base, reddish, cleft a little deeper 

 above, tapering at base into the pedicel which is reflexed in fruit; 

 teeth slender to deltoid, about 2 mm. long, half the tube or less, 

 broadly subulate, not spreading. Bracts very small, half as long as 

 pedicels or less in fruit. Pedicels stout, strigose, 5-7 mm. long. 

 Peduncles in flower longer than the spikes, in fruit often less, 1-3 

 dm. long, not manifestly grooved when fresh but decidedly so when 

 dry, strict and erect, subterminal, densely flowered above. Leaves 

 leathery, fleshy when fresh, not over 8 cm. long. Leaflets none to 3 

 pairs, linear to filiform, rarely wider than the green rachis and al- 

 ways like it, 1.5-3 cm. long, distant, obscurely jointed to rachis, ses- 

 sile, the rachis often leafless and then 5-8 cm. long, the end leaflet 

 not conspicuously and rarely at all enlarged. Stipules distinct, or 

 connate below, small. Stems many, conspicuously grooved, densely 

 tufted, branched, tall, the branches not {angled, from a fleshy and 

 erect taproot, the internodes 8 cm. long or less. Pubescence hoary, 

 composed of wide, flat, very short and appressed hairs throughout 

 except on the pods v/hich are nearly smooth. It grows in poor and 

 alkaline soil and has the habit of A. junceus but without the under- 

 ground and branching roots and grows in large tufts around alka- 

 line seeps and similar slopes and washes. The peculiar rush-like 

 habit with stems and leaves equally green cause it to be overlooked. 

 From Pioche, Nevada, northward to F'erguson Spring near Ibapah, 

 Utah, eastward from Pioche north of the Grand Canon along the 

 Virgin (north to Cedar City) and the Kanab region, throughout the 

 Navajo Basin drainage, eastward through Durango and the Little 

 Colorado to the Rio Grande, thence northward to Pueblo and Canon 

 City. Lower Temperate life zone in very poor alkaline soil either 

 sand or clay. 



