镇康黄耆 zhen kang huang qi

Plants ca. 110 cm tall. Stem ca. 4 mm in diam., hollow, glabrous. Leaves 10-17 cm; stipules 1-1.5 cm, free, white hairy at margins and apex; petiole 2-2.5 cm, like rachis sparsely to rather loosely covered with subappressed to ascending, white and black hairs up to 1 mm; leaflets in 8-11 pairs, narrowly elliptic, 15-30 × 5-13 mm, abaxially loosely, at margins more densely, covered with white hairs 0.2-0.5 mm, adaxially mostly sparsely appressed hairy, apex rounded, minutely mucronulate. Racemes rather densely 12-22-flowered, elongating after anthe­sis; peduncle 8-12 cm, hairy like rachis; bracts 7-11 mm, loosely white and black hairy, ± persistent. Bracteoles 2-3 mm. Calyx ca. 8 mm, rather densely covered with subappressed to ascending, predominantly black hairs 0.2-0.8 mm; teeth ca. 2 mm. Petals yellow; standard obovate, 16-17 × ca. 7 mm, slightly constricted below middle, claw ca. 5 mm, apex emar­ginate; wings and keel ca. 15 mm. Ovary with a stipe ca. 5 mm, linear, glabrous. Legumes unknown.

● About 2900 m. Yunnan (Zhenkang).

This species is in Astragalus sect. Chlorostachys provisionally be­cause it is not clear if the fruit is 1- or 2-locular. In habit and in most characters, it resembles A. dumetorum in A. sect. Chlorostachys. It does not resemble any species with a glabrous ovary in A. sect. Cenantrum.