长荚黄耆 chang jia huang qi

Astragalus macroceras C. A. Meyer ex Bongard.

Plants 10-20(-50) cm tall. Stems of current year 1.5-8(-20) cm, mostly ascending at base, very densely covered with appressed white hairs. Leaves 3-7 cm; stipules 3-5 mm, free or shortly adnate to petiole, hairy; petiole 1-2 cm; leaflets in 5-7 pairs, 5-12 × 1.5-4 mm. Racemes 4-5 cm, rather loosely 7-15-flowered; peduncle 3-8 cm, appressed white hairy; bracts ca. 2 mm, black or white and black hairy. Calyx 9-12 mm, appressed, predominantly black hairy; teeth ca. 2 mm. Petals white or violet; standard obovate, 20-22 mm, apex retuse; wings 15-17 mm; keel 13-14 mm. Legumes sessile, obliquely erect, slightly curved, 20-30 mm, 2-2.5 mm high and wide, with a subulate beak ca. 1 mm; valves appressed white hairy, with some black hairs mixed in.

Stony mountain steppes. Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].

The Chinese records of Astragalus ortholobiformis Sumnevicz from Gansu and Xinjiang (FRPS 42(1): 310. 1993) are possibly based on misidentifications of some forms of A. macrolobus (a difficult group). No Chinese material of A. ortholobiformis has been seen; it is a rare species of W Kazakhstan.