Astragalus gilviflorus
 
Cushion Milk-Vetch

Leaf Top

Hidden Valley Sanctuary, 
East of Craven on South Side of Qu'Appelle Valley
28-April-2016

Note the hyaline stipules.

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Gilviflorus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 
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plants low, 10 cm or less; NOT [plants taller]

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

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

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NOT [leaves 1-4 cm long, linear to oblanceolate, simple or with 1 or 2 linear leaflets]

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leaves trifid; NOT [leaves pinnate with several pairs of leaflets]

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leaves densely villous

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leaflets not needle-like; NOT [leaflets needle-like, about 10 mm long, 1 mm wide, distinctly spine-tipped]

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corolla white, becoming yellowish on drying, keel tip purplish or bluish

 

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Astragalus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. Not all these answers apply to all members of Astragalus in Saskatchewan, but they all do apply to this species.
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herbs; NOT [shrubs]

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plants very low cushion plants; NOT [plants with elongate stems]

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plants not climbing

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leaves palmately divided; NOT [leaves pinnately divided]

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leaflets 3; NOT [leaflets more than 3]

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leaflets entire; NOT [leaflets finely toothed]

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leaflets not glandular-dotted

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terminal leaflet normal; NOT [terminal leaflet replaced by a tendril]

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flowers 2 cm long; NOT [flowers 6-8 mm long]

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flowers whitish; NOT [flowers purple or yellow]

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keel not truncate; NOT [keel mostly truncate]

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fruit a legume; NOT [fruit a loment]

 

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Leguminosae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 
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herbs; NOT [shrubs or 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 [leaves opposite, whorled, or basal]

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leaves with stipules; NOT [leaves without stipules, or having glands]

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

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flowers irregular in shape; NOT [flowers regular in shape]

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calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]

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

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stamens usually separate or partly so, not in a column; NOT [stamens numerous, united into a column]

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fruit a legume; NOT [fruit a 3-valved capsule]