Astragalus spatulatus

      
Tufted Milk-Vetch

Leaf Top Close-Up

West Block
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
19-June-2004

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Spatulatus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
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plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling, densely caespitose or pulvinate; NOT [plants with erect or decumbent stems that are often branched and leafy]

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plants 10 cm or less in height

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leaves many, crowded

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leaves simple, occasionally with 2 to 5 linear leaflets; NOT [leaves with at least 7 leaflets]

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leaves NOT needle-like

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leaflets NOT spine-tipped

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leaves linear to oblanceolate

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leaves 1-4 cm long

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flowers often included among leaves or barely exceeding them

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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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flowers blue to purple; NOT yellow, NOT pale lavender, NOT white

 
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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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leaves pinnately divided; NOT palmately divided

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leaflets more than 3

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terminal leaflet normal; NOT replaced by a tendril

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leaflets NOT [5, pinnately arranged (the lower pair basal and resembling stipules)]

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leaves NOT glandular-dotted

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inflorescence NOT umbel-like

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calyx-lobes NOT [subulate, much longer than the tube]

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flowers NOT [pinkish to red or purple]

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flowers NOT yellow (FOA)

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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

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fruit NOT [only slightly longer than wide, with short stout spines, 1-seeded]

 

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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 aquatic

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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