弯花黄耆 wan hua huang qi

Astragalus pentapetaloides Bunge.

Plants 18-30 cm tall, acaulescent, sparsely covered with white hairs 0.5-1.5 mm, at rachis up to 2 mm. Leaves 12-30 cm; stipules 8-17(-20) mm, adnate to petiole for 2-4 mm, gla­brous or hairy at margin and apex; petiole 4-7 cm, like rachis glabrous or sparsely spreading hairy; leaflets in 7-13 pairs, re­mote, widely obovate to suborbicular, 8-18 × 7-17 mm, abaxi­ally sparsely to densely appressed hairy or subglabrous, adaxi­ally glabrous, apex rounded to slightly retuse. Racemes loosely (10-)15-25-flowered; peduncle 5-12 cm, glabrous or sparsely spreading hairy; bracts 5-9 mm, sparsely ciliate. Calyx curved, 13-17(-20) mm, glabrous or in upper part and at teeth sparsely and shortly hairy; teeth 1.5-3 mm. Petals yellow; standard ellip­tic to obovate, (25-)30-35 × 9-11 mm, apex emarginate; wings 20-26 mm; keel longer than wings, (21-)24-29 mm, limbs ± straight or slightly curved. Legumes with a stipe 6-8 mm, ovoid, 16-25 mm, 8-9 mm high and 10-12 mm wide, widely rounded ventrally and dorsally, with a straight beak 2-3 mm, incompletely 2-locular; valves glabrous or sparsely hairy.

Sandy steppes. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran), Europe].