Striatus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 

	plants with taproots and caudex; NOT [plants with slender rootstalks]
	stems evident, erect or decumbent, often branched and leafy; NOT [plants densely caespitose or pulvinate; leaves many, crowded; flowers often included among leaves or barely exceeding them] (FOA)
	plants with erect or decumbent stems; NOT [plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling] (BF)
	plants taller; NOT [plants low, 10 cm or less]
	plants with malpighian hairs
	stem generally less than 5 mm thick at base; NOT [stem generally thick, 5-10 mm at base]
	stipules connate; NOT [stipules free]
	leaves NOT needle-like; NOT [leaves needle-like, about 10 mm long, 1mm wide, distinctly spine-tipped]
	leaves green; NOT [leaves silvery-grey]
	leaflets shorter than 2-4 (6) cm long
	pubescence of the leaflets composed of malpighian hairs; NOT [pubescence of the leaflets composed of basifixed hairs]
	flowers mostly in a dense, spike-like, globose or elongate head (occasionally a loose raceme); NOT [flowers mostly 3-9 in a loose raceme] (FOA)
	inflorescence a short, dense, head-like raceme, about as long as wide; NOT [inflorescence not head-like, if densely flowered an elongated raceme] (BF)
	flowers 12-15 mm long; NOT [flowers 5-12 mm long], NOT [flowers about 20 mm long]
	flowers and pods all erect; NOT [some flowers pendent]
	flowers at least partly reddish, purplish, or bluish; NOT [flowers white, yellow, or greenish]
	wing-petals entire; NOT [wing-petals deeply bidentate at the apex]
	keel-petals longer than 6 mm, about as long as the wings; NOT [keel petals less than 6 mm long, much shorter than the wings]
	NOT [pod globose, coarsely pilose with black and white hairs; leaves strigose above and below with basifixed hairs; flowers 10-12 (15) mm long, in a dense raceme]

Astragalus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.  Not all the answers apply to all members of Astragalus found in the Canadian prairies, but they all do apply to this species. 

	herbs; NOT shrubs
	plants NOT climbing
	leafy stems often present; NOT [leafy stems usually absent]
	leaves pinnately divided; NOT [leaves palmately divided]
	leaflets more than 3
	terminal leaflet normal; NOT [terminal leaflet replaced by a tendril]
	leaflets NOT glandular-dotted
	keel NOT truncate; NOT [keel mostly truncate]
	keel rounded or obtuse at the tip; NOT [keel with a sharp point at the tip]
	pods NOT segmented or jointed; NOT [pods segmented or jointed, breaking up at maturity]
	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]
	NOT [inflorescence umbel-like; flowers yellow; leaflets 5, pinnately arranged (the lower pair basal and resembling stipules)]

Leguminosae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family. 

	herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]
	plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT [plants aquatic; leaves submerged or floating]
	plants NOT with colored milky juice
	plants with more than one normal leaf
	some or all leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, whorled, or basal]
	leaves with stipules; NOT [leaves without stipules, or having glands]
	flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others]
	calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]
	flowers irregular in shape
	corolla pea-like; NOT [corolla with one petal spurred or sac-like]
	stamens usually separate or partly so, not in a column; NOT [stamens numerous, united into a column]
	fruit a legume; NOT [fruit a 3-valved capsule]