细果黄耆 xi guo huang qi

Astragalus woldemarii Juzepczuk; ?A. woldemarii var. atrotrichocladus S. B. Ho.

Plants subshrubby, 25-45 cm tall. Stems branched, parts of current year (3-)5-15(-20) cm, densely appressed white hairy, with scattered or toward nodes more numerous black hairs mixed in. Leaves 4-7 cm, subsessile; stipules 4-6 mm, adnate to petiole, lower ones connate at base, covered with appressed black and mostly with fewer white hairs; rachis appressed hairy; leaflets in 5-8 pairs, (10-)12-35 × 2-4 mm, abaxially sparsely covered with appressed hairs, adaxially covered with scattered hairs. Racemes (4-)6-10 cm, densely few to many flowered; peduncle up to 12 cm, appressed white hairy, toward raceme with black hairs mixed in; bracts (2-)4-5 mm, black hairy. Calyx in fruit narrowly ovoid, 8-11 mm, sparsely covered with ascending white hairs and subappressed, short, black hairs; teeth 2-2.5 mm. Petals dirty yellow; standard elliptic-pandurate, 17-20 mm, slightly constricted below middle, apex scarcely emarginate; wings 15-16 mm. Legumes ca. 5 mm, ca. 2.5 mm high, with a beak 1-1.5 mm, 2-locular; valves covered with sub­appressed white and black hairs.

Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan].

In China, Astragalus woldemarii var. atrotrichocladus S. B. Ho (Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 3(4): 56. 1983) is said to differ from the typical plant by its higher growth, 50-100 cm tall, young stems with black hairs only, and leaves white hairy on both surfaces. Because we have not seen the type, we cannot determine if it is a separate species. Therefore, we have not made a formal transfer of this variety to A. tyttocarpus.