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

	plants with taproots and caudex; NOT [plants with rootstalks]
	plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling; NOT [plants with erect or decumbent stems]
	plants taller; stems evident, erect or decumbent, often branched and leafy; NOT [plants low, 10 cm or less; densely caespitose or pulvinate; leaves many, crowded; flowers often included among leaves or barely exceeding them]
	stems generally less than 5 mm thick at base; NOT [stem generally thick, 5-10 mm at base]
	plants with malpighian hairs; NOT [plants lacking malpighian hairs]
	leaves silvery-grey; NOT [leaves green]
	stipules free; NOT [stipules connate]
	leaves with at least 7 leaflets
	leaflets shorter; NOT [leaflets 2-4 (6) cm long]
	leaflets not needle-like; NOT [leaflets needle-like, about 10 mm long, 1 mm wide, distinctly spine-tipped]
	flowers borne on more or less well developed peduncles; NOT [flowers borne in the crown of the plant]
	flowers mostly 3-9 in a loose raceme; NOT [flowers mostly in a dense, spike-like head]
	flowers about 2 cm long; NOT [flowers about 1 cm long] (BF)
	flowers 12-30 mm long; NOT [flowers 5-12 mm long] (FOA)
	flowers purple or blue, occasionally whitish; NOT [flowers yellowish, with or without purplish tips], NOT [flowers white or cream], NOT [flowers orange]

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

	herbs; NOT [shrubs]
	plants not climbing, lacking tendrils; NOT [plants climbing, leaves with tendrils]
	leafy stems often present; NOT [leafy stems usually absent]
	leaves pinnate; NOT [leaves palmate]
	leaves not glandular-dotted
	leaflets more than 3
	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
	flowers irregular in shape; NOT [flowers regular in shape]
	calyx regular; NOT [calyx irregular, some sepals smaller than others]
	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]