Common Name: LEGUME FAMILY Habit: Annual to tree. Leaf: generally alternate, generally compound, generally stipuled, generally entire, pinnately veined Inflorescence: generally raceme, spike, umbel or head; or flowers 1--few in axils. Flower: generally bisexual, generally bilateral; hypanthium 0 or flat to tubular; sepals generally 5, generally fused; petals generally 5, free, fused, or lower 2 +- united into keel (see 3, Key to Groups, for banner, wings); stamens 10 or many (or [1], 5, 6, 7, 9), free or fused or 10 with 9 filaments at least partly fused, 1 (uppermost) free; pistil 1, ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, ovules 1--many, style, stigma 1. Fruit: legume, including a stalk-like base (above receptacle) or not. Seed: 1--many, often +- reniform, generally hard, smooth. Genera In Family: +- 730 genera, 19400 species: worldwide; with grasses, requisite in agriculture, most natural ecosystems. Many cultivated, most importantly Arachis, peanut; Glycine, soybean; Phaseolus, beans; Medicago, alfalfa; Trifolium, clovers; many orns. Note: Unless stated otherwise, fruit length including stalk-like base, number of 2° leaflets is per 1° leaflet. Upper suture of fruit adaxial, lower abaxial. Anthyllis vulneraria L. evidently a waif, a contaminant of legume seed from Europe. Laburnum anagyroides Medik., collected on Mount St. Helena in 1987, may be naturalized. Ceratonia siliqua L., carob tree (Group 2), differs from Gleditsia triacanthos L. in having evergreen (vs deciduous) leaves that are 1-pinnate (vs 1-pinnate on spurs on old stems, 2-pinnate on new stems) with 2--5(8) (vs 7--17) 1° leaflets, commonly cultivated, now naturalized in southern California. Aeschynomene rudis Benth. , Halimodendron halodendron (Pall.) Voss (possibly extirpated), Lens culinaris Medik. are agricultural weeds. Caragana arborescens Lam. only cult. Ononis alopecuroides L. , Sphaerophysa salsula (Pall.) DC. all evidently extirpated. Cercidium moved to Parkinsonia; Chamaecytisus to Cytisus; Psoralidium lanceolatum to Ladeania. eFlora Treatment Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski, except as noted Scientific Editor: Martin F. Wojciechowski, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: LOCOWEED, MILKVETCH Habit: Annual, perennial herb from crown, generally unarmed; hairs generally present, simple or branches 2, from base, parallel to leaf surface, unequal or not. Stem: 0 or prostrate to erect. Leaf: odd-1-pinnate (or palmately compound); leaflets generally jointed to midrib, entire; stipules membranous, lower fused around stem into sheaths (stipule sheaths) or not. Inflorescence: raceme, head- or umbel-like or not, axillary; flowers 2--many. Flower: bilateral; keel petals with small protrusion at base locking into pit on adjacent wing; 9 filaments fused, 1 free; ovary (and fruit) generally sessile, style slender, stigma minute. Fruit: generally 1- or +- 2-chambered, often mottled, generally +- dry in age, sometimes deciduous (falling from plant with or without pedicel, calyx, receptacle) before dehiscence. Seed: 2--many, smooth, compressed, +- notched at attachment scar. Etymology: (Greek: ankle-bone or dice, perhaps from rattling of seeds within fruit) Note: Difficult; flower and fruit needed for identification; fruit said to be "deciduous" dehisce only after fruit has separated from pl; many good species appear similar; some species complexes need study. Taxa near province boundaries may appear in > 1 key. Varieties keyed under species for simplicity; species with varieties so identified in key. Fruit length including beak and any stalk-like base unless fruit body specified; fruit depth is suture-to-suture axis. Astragalus tephrodes A. Gray var. brachylobus (A. Gray) Barneby in southwestern Utah, Arizona, near California. eFlora Treatment Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski & Richard Spellenberg Unabridged Reference: Barneby 1964 Mem New York Bot Gard 20:1--1188; Isely 1998 Native and Naturalized Leguminosae (Fabaceae) of the United States
Astragalus bicristatus A. Gray
NATIVE Habit: Perennial herb, sparsely leafy; often +- gray minutely strigose. Stem: ascending or sprawling, < 5 dm. Leaf: 3--14 cm; stipule sheaths present; leaflets 11--23, often +- spaced, 5--20 mm, linear to narrowly oblong, terminal not or +- jointed to midrib, tips generally obtuse or notched. Inflorescence: flowers 5--20, ascending. Flower: petals +- white, banner 15--19 mm, recurved +- 50°, keel 12--13 mm. Fruit: +- pendent; body 20--43 mm, 6--9 mm wide, incurved, glabrous, early +- round in ×-section, fleshy, then +- 4-sided (prominently flanged on upper, lower), stiffly leathery or +- woody; stalk-like base downcurved, 6--10 mm, stout; chamber 1. Ecology: Open, rocky areas in pine forest; Elevation: 1700--2750 m. Bioregional Distribution: SCo (w Riverside, San Bernardino cos.), SnGb, SnBr, PR. Flowering Time: May--Aug Jepson eFlora Author: Martin F. Wojciechowski & Richard Spellenberg Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Astragalus bernardinus Next taxon: Astragalus bolanderi
Botanical illustration including Astragalus bicristatus
Citation for this treatment: Martin F. Wojciechowski & Richard Spellenberg 2023, Astragalus bicristatus, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 12, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=14721, accessed on December 03, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on December 03, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Astragalus bicristatus:
SCo (w Riverside, San Bernardino cos.), SnGb, SnBr, PR.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).