Astragalus flexuosus

      
Slender Milk-Vetch

Whole Plant Minus Root

Rowan's Ravine Provincial Park
01-July-2005

Note that the root is missing from this photo.

Note that Budd's Flora requires "plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling; NOT [with erect or decumbent stems] ".  In fact, the stems can be straggling to decumbent.

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Flexuosus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
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plants of dry plains and foothills; NOT [plants of moist habitats in the north and the mountains]

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plants with taproots and caudex; NOT [plants with rootstalks]

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stems evident, erect or decumbent, often branched and leafy; NOT [plants densely caespitose or pulvinate; leaves many, crowded; flowers often included among the leaves or barely exceeding them] (Flora of Alberta)

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plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling; NOT [with erect or decumbent stems] (Budd's Flora)

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plants taller than 10 cm

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stems long; NOT short

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stems generally less than 5 mm thick at base; NOT 5-10 mm thick at base

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stems LACKING black hairs

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stems few-leafed; NOT densely leafed

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leaflets 15-21; NOT [11 or less]

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leaflets shorter than 2-4 (6) cm long

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leaflets narrowly oblong to oblanceolate; NOT elliptic ovate

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leaflets often truncate or retuse at the tip; NOT [acute at the tip, sometimes arcuate]

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leaflets NOT silvery pubescent

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leaflets NOT needle-like; NOT spine-tipped

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flowers borne on more or less well developed peduncles; NOT borne in the crown of the plant

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inflorescence elongating at maturity

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flowers 5-12 mm long; NOT 12-30 mm long

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calyx teeth shorter than the calyx-tube; NOT [about as long as or longer than the calyx-tube]

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calyx teeth deltoid to lanceolate; NOT linear

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petals blue, purple or pink or predominantly so (sometimes very pale with only flashes of deeper colour); NOT [petals mostly yellow, cream or orange, the keel sometimes tinged with blue or blue-tipped], NOT white

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keel-petals less than 6 mm long; NOT longer than 6 mm

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apex of keel bluntly rounded; NOT [keel-tip acuminate]

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pods cylindric; NOT flattened

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pods glabrous or with only white hairs; NOT [pods with at least some black hairs]

 
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Astragalus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.
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herbs; NOT shrubs

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plants NOT climbing

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leafy stems often present; NOT [usually absent]

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leaflets more than 3

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leaves pinnately divided; NOT palmately divided

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terminal leaflet normal; NOT replaced by a tendril

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leaflets NOT glandular-dotted

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keel rounded or obtuse at the tip; NOT with a sharp point at the tip

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keel NOT truncate

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fruit a legume; NOT a loment, NOT segmented, NOT jointed

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NOT [flowers pinkish to red or purple; calyx-lobes subulate, much longer than the tube; fruit only slightly longer than wide, with short, stout spines, 1-seeded]

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NOT [inflorescence umbel-like; flowers yellow; leaflets 5, pinnately arranged (the lower pair basal and resembling stipules)]

 

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Leguminosae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family.
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herbs; NOT shrubs, NOT trees

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plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT [plants aquatic, leaves submerged or floating]

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plants NOT with colored milky juice

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plants with more than one normal leaf

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some or all leaves alternate; NOT [opposite, whorled, or basal]

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leaves with stipules

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flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others

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calyx regular

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flowers irregular in shape

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corolla pea-like; NOT [with one petal spurred or sac-like]

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stamens usually separate or partly so; NOT in a column

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fruit a legume; NOT a 3-valved capsule