''Astragalus acutirostris'' is a species of

milkvetch ''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to temper ...

known by the common name sharpkeel milkvetch. It is native to the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and surroundings of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, where it grows in dry, sandy, gravelly areas.

Description

''Astragalus acutirostris'' is an annual

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

growing a hairy reddish stem no more than 30 centimeters long along the ground or slightly upright. The small leaves are made up of several pairs of small oblong leaflets, each less than a centimeter long and often with notched tips. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

contains one to six white or pinkish-tinted pealike flowers, each with a banner that curves back. The fruit is a slightly curved, narrow legume pod 1 to 3 centimeters long. The pod is thin-walled and coated sparsely in white hairs like the rest of the plant.

References

External links

Jepson Manual - ''Astragalus acutirostris''USDA Plants Profile: ''Astragalus acutirostris''''Astragalus acutirostris'' - Photo gallery
acutirostris Flora of Nevada Flora of Arizona Flora of the California desert regions Plants described in 1885 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Astragalus-stub