SLENDER MILK-VETCH
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| File Size: 86 KB |
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Astragalus gracilis Nutt.
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| Barber County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 6-32 inches |
| Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July |
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| Stems: | | Erect, ascending, or decumbent, 1 to few, spindly, branched. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, stalked, odd-pinnately compound, 1 to 3 inches long; leaflets 7-21, narrowly linear or linear-oblong, 1/4 to 1 inch long, less than 1/10 inch wide, almost cylindric in cross-section, minutely stiff hairy or glabrous; tips blunt or rounded, notched slightly. | | Inflorescences: | | Racemes, spike-like, on stalks 2 to 8 inches long, 3-50-flowered. | | Flowers: | | Calyces bell-shaped; corollas papilionaceous, dark purple to pale pinkish or sometimes whitish with purple keel tips, fade yellowish; stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free. | | Fruits: | | Pods, small, 1-celled, egg-shaped, 1/6 to 1/3 inch long; seeds smooth, brown. | | Habitat: | | Open prairie hilltops, wooded or brushy hillsides, ravines, and roadsides. | | Distribution: | | West half of Kansas. | | Uses: | | Lakota mothers would chew the roots of slender milk-vetch to enhance lactation. | | Comments: | | Slender milk-vetch can be variable in the size, shape, and number of leaflets, the size of the flowers, and the amount of pubescence. |
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| Slender milk-vetch inflorescence |  | | 77 KB | | Barber County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch |  | | 179 KB | | Barber County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch flowers |  | | 60 KB | | Comanche County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch |  | | 173 KB | | Comanche County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch leaf |  | | 36 KB | | Scott County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch |  | | 40 KB | | Scott County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch inflorescence |  | | 41 KB | | Scott County, Kansas |
| | Slender milk-vetch |  | | 30 KB | | Scott County, Kansas |
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