''Astragalus lentiginosus'' is a species of

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

native to western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

where it grows in a range of

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s include spotted locoweed page 752 and freckled milkvetch. There are a great number of wild

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

. The flower and the fruit of an individual plant are generally needed to identify the specific variety.

Distribution

As a species, ''Astragalus lentiginosus'' is distributed throughout the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

of North America, west from the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

to the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. P ...

, south to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and north to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Varieties are largely limited to marginal habitats such as disturbed sites in the arid regions of the continent. The group also contains a number of

edaphic Edaphology (from Greek , ''edaphos'', "ground",, '' -logia'') is concerned with the influence of soils on living beings, particularly plants. It is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology includes the stu ...

specialists which occur at desert seeps, which frequently exhibit high levels of calcium carbonate.

Description

''Astragalus lentiginosus'' is a perennial or occasionally annual herb with leaves up to long divided into many pairs of small leaflets. The plant is prostrate to erect in form and quite woolly to nearly hairless. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

holds up to 50 pea-like flowers which may be purplish or whitish or a mix of both. A unifying character among most of the varieties is an inflated, beaked

pod with a groove along the side. The pod dries to a papery texture and dehisces starting at the beak to release the seeds. The epithet ''lentiginosus'' refers to the red mottling commonly found on the pods which resemble

freckles Freckles are clusters of concentrated melaninized cells which are most easily visible on people with a fair complexion. Freckles do not have an increased number of the melanin-producing cells, or melanocytes, but instead have melanocytes that ...

Taxonomy

Many of what we currently know as varieties of ''Astragalus lentiginosus'' were originally described as individual species. Botanist Marcus E. Jones was the first to recognize the similarities among these taxa and arranged them as varieties of one species.

Per Axel Rydberg Per Axel Rydberg (July 6, 1860 – July 25, 1931) was a Swedish-born, American botanist who was the first curator of the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium. Biography Per Axel Rydberg was born in Odh, Västergötland, Sweden and emigrated t ...

employed a very different species concept stating that he did not believe in infrataxa This resulted in his raising Jones's varieties to species in the genera ''Cystium'' and ''Tium''. A notable novelty of Rydberg's treatment is the concept of sections which have been maintained in the keys of subsequent treatments, even if this was not explicitly stated. Subsequent treatments include Barneby, Isely, and Welsh. Each of these treatments are slightly different, containing between 36 and 42 taxa. Recent molecular work seems to suggest a genetic component to the varieties.

Varieties

Currently the following 40 taxa are recognized: *''A. l.'' var. ''albifolius'' M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''ambiguus'' Barneby 1964. *''A. l.'' var. ''antonius'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''araneosus'' (E.Sheld.) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''australis'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''borreganus'' M.E.Jones 1898. *''A. l.'' var. ''chartaceus'' M.E.Jones 1895. *''A. l.'' var. ''coachellae'' Barneby 1964. *''A. l.'' var. ''diphysus'' (A.Gray) M.E.Jones 1895. *''A. l.'' var. ''floribundus'' Gray 1865. *''A. l.'' var. ''fremontii'' (A.Gray 1857) S.Watson 1871. *''A. l.'' var. ''higginsii'' S.L.Welsh 1981. *''A. l.'' var. ''idriensis'' M.E.Jones 1902. *''A. l.'' var. ''ineptus'' (A.Gray) M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''kennedyi'' (Rydb.) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''kernensis'' (Jeps.) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''latus'' (M.E.Jones) M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''lentiginosus'' Barneby 1964. *''A. l.'' var. ''maricopae'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''micans'' Barneby 1956. *''A. l.'' var. ''mokiacensis'' (A.Gray) M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''multiracemosus'' S.L.Welsh & N.D.Atwood 2007. *''A. l.'' var. ''negundo'' S.L.Welsh & N.D.Atwood 2007. *''A. l.'' var. ''nigricalycis'' M.E.Jones 1895. *''A. l.'' var. ''oropedii'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''palans'' (M.E.Jones) M.E.Jones 1898. *''A. l.'' var. ''piscinensis'' Barneby 1977. *''A. l.'' var. ''pohlii'' S.L.Welsh & Barneby 1981. *''A. l.'' var. ''salinus'' (Howell) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''scorpionis'' M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''semotus'' Jeps. 1936. *''A. l.'' var. ''sesquimetralis'' (Rydb.) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''sierrae'' M.E.Jones 1923. *''A. l.'' var. ''stramineus'' (Rydb.) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''trumbullensis'' S.L.Welsh & N.D.Atwood 1981. *''A. l.'' var. ''ursinus'' (A.Gray) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''variabilis'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''vitreus'' Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''wilsonii'' (Greene) Barneby 1945. *''A. l.'' var. ''yuccanus'' M.E.Jones 1898.

Conservation

Two rare varieties

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to California are federally listed under the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

; var. ''coachellae'', or

Coachella Valley , map_image = Wpdms shdrlfi020l coachella valley.jpg , map_caption = Coachella Valley , location = California, United States , coordinates = , width = , boundaries = Salton Sea (southeast), Santa Rosa Mountains (southwest), San Jacint ...

milk vetch, is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

and var. ''piscinensis'' is threatened.USFWS
Determination of endangered or threatened status for five desert milk-vetch taxa from California.
''Federal Register'' October 6, 1998.

Cultivation

''Astragalus lentiginosus'' is currently not cultivated commercially. Propagation from seed requires

scarification Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the p ...

of the seed coat in order for the embryo to absorb water.

Uses

The

Zuni people The Zuni ( zun, A:shiwi; formerly spelled ''Zuñi'') are Native American Pueblo peoples native to the Zuni River valley. The Zuni are a Federally recognized tribe and most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Lit ...

eat the pods of the ''diphysus'' variety fresh, boiled, or salted. They are also dried and stored for winter use.Stevenson, Matilda Coxe 1915 Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians. SI-BAE Annual Report #30 (p. 65)

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Astragalus lentiginosus''USDA Plants Profile: Astragalus lentiginosus''Astragalus lentiginosus'' Photo galleryAstragalus lentiginosus - wikispecies treatmentoregonstate.edu: ''Astragalus lentiginosus'' website
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2868518 lentiginosus Flora of the Western United States Flora of California Flora of the Rocky Mountains Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of Riverside County, California Flora of the Coachella Valley Plants used in Native American cuisine Flora without expected TNC conservation status