Spatulatus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.   plants low, cushion-like, matted or straggling, densely caespitose or pulvinate; NOT [plants with erect or decumbent stems that are often branched and leafy] plants 10 cm or less in height leaves many, crowded leaves simple, occasionally with 2 to 5 linear leaflets; NOT [leaves with at least 7 leaflets] leaves NOT needle-like leaflets NOT spine-tipped leaves linear to oblanceolate leaves 1-4 cm long flowers often included among leaves or barely exceeding them flowers borne on more or less well developed peduncles; NOT borne in the crown of the plant flowers blue to purple; NOT yellow, NOT pale lavender, NOT white

 

Astragalus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. herbs; NOT shrubs plants NOT climbing leafy stems often present; NOT [usually absent] leaves pinnately divided; NOT palmately divided leaflets more than 3 terminal leaflet normal; NOT replaced by a tendril leaflets NOT [5, pinnately arranged (the lower pair basal and resembling stipules)] leaves NOT glandular-dotted inflorescence NOT umbel-like calyx-lobes NOT [subulate, much longer than the tube] flowers NOT [pinkish to red or purple] flowers NOT yellow (FOA) keel rounded or obtuse at the tip; NOT with a sharp point at the tip keel NOT truncate fruit a legume; NOT a loment, NOT segmented fruit NOT [only slightly longer than wide, with short stout spines, 1-seeded]

Leguminosae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora leading to this family. herbs; NOT shrubs, NOT trees plants terrestrial or semiaquatic; NOT aquatic plants NOT with colored milky juice plants with more than one normal leaf some or all leaves alternate; NOT [opposite, whorled, or basal] leaves with stipules flowers with two floral rings, and with each petal distinct from the others calyx regular flowers irregular in shape corolla pea-like; NOT [with one petal spurred or sac-like] stamens usually separate or partly so; NOT in a column fruit a legume; NOT a 3-valved capsule