乳白花黄耆 ru bai hua huang qi

Astragalus otosemius Kitagawa; A. zhaolingicus K. T. Fu.

Plants 3-12 cm tall, often forming compact mats, only white hairy. Leaves 3-12 cm; stipules 5-7(-10) mm, adnate to petiole for 2-3 mm, loosely to rather densely covered with strongly asymmetrically bifurcate, subappressed hairs, some­times glabrescent, margins with basifixed, ± spreading hairs up to 1.5 mm; petiole 1-5 cm, like rachis densely covered with symmetrically or asymmetrically bifurcate, appressed hairs 0.6-0.8 mm; leaflets in 4-8 pairs, narrowly elliptic, 5-13(-19) × 1-3(-5) mm, abaxially loosely to rather densely hairy like rachis, adaxially glabrous or rarely with scattered hairs toward margins. Racemes many, forming dense, capitate synflorescences around base of leaves, (1 or)2-4-flowered; peduncle up to 0.5 cm, densely hairy; bracts 6-9 mm, with subbasifixed to basifixed hairs up to 1.5 mm. Calyx (6-)8-10 mm, densely covered with subappressed to ascending, asym­metrically bifurcate hairs up to 1.5 mm; teeth (2.5-)4-6 mm. Petals whitish, tip of standard and keel often violet; standard oblong-pandurate, (18-)21-26 × 6-7 mm, slightly to distinctly constricted in lower 1/3, apex retuse to emarginate; wings (14-)18-22 mm; keel (14-)18-20 mm. Legumes white hairy.

Steppes. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi [Mongolia, Russia (Si­beria)].