多枝黄耆 duo zhi huang qi

Astragalus decumbens Komarov; A. nigrescens Franchet (1890), not Pallas (1800), nor Nuttall (1847), nor (Hooker) A. Gray (1862); A. polycladus var. glabricarpus Y. H. Wu; A. poly­cladus var. nigrescens E. Peter.

Plants 10-50 cm tall; hairs ± subappressed, in vegetative parts nearly only white, in inflorescence also black. Stems sparsely to loosely covered with hairs 0.2-0.4 mm. Leaves 4-6 cm, subsessile; stipules 3-4 mm, behind stem distinctly con­nate, sometimes up to 3/4 of length, upper ones sometimes nearly free, all hairy or subglabrous; rachis loosely hairy; leaf­lets in 5-11 pairs, narrowly elliptic, 4-9(-14) × 2-4(-5) mm, abaxially loosely to densely and adaxially sparsely to loosely covered with hairs 0.5-1 mm, apex rounded to emarginate. Ra­cemes ovoid to shortly cylindric, rather densely many flowered; peduncle 3-8 cm, loosely or in upper part more densely covered with white or black hairs 0.2-0.3 mm; bracts 2-3 mm, white and black hairy. Calyx 3-4 mm, loosely covered with black hairs 0.1-0.3 mm and mostly with some white hairs 0.5-0.7 mm; teeth 0.8-2.5 mm. Petals pale violet, with darker keel; standard elliptic, 6-7 × 3-4; wings 5-6 mm; keel 5-5.5 mm. Legumes spreading to slightly pendulous, with a stipe ca. 2 mm, 5-10 mm, 1.8-3 mm high and wide, with a minute beak, incompletely 2-locular; valves rather densely covered with sub­appressed to ascending white or white and black hairs 0.3-0.4 mm.

● Meadows, roadsides, light scrub; 2000-4500 m. Gansu, Qing­hai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan.