乌恰黄耆 wu qia huang qi

Astragalus skorniakowii B. Fedtschenko; A. skorniakowii var. wuqiaensis S. B. Ho.

Plants 10-30 cm tall, acaulescent or nearly so, covered with ± appressed to subappressed, mostly ± symmetrically to slightly asymmetrically bifurcate hairs 0.5-0.8(-1.1) mm. Stems, if present, up to 2.5(-3.5) cm, densely white hairy. Leaves 5-20 cm; stipules 5-12 mm, connate behind stem to middle, loosely white hairy with some black hairs mixed in, soon glabrescent or partly glabrous; petiole 2-8 cm, like rachis sparsely to loosely white hairy; leaflets in mostly 10-20 pairs, 6-14 × 1.5-3 mm, abaxially loosely and adaxially sparsely to loosely white hairy. Racemes 2-4 cm, rather densely few to many flowered, elongating in fruit up to 13 cm; peduncle 4-20 cm, sparsely to more rarely rather loosely white hairy, in upper part often also with black hairs or subglabrous; bracts 3-6 mm, sparsely black hairy. Calyx mostly 10(-13) mm, tubular to slightly inflated, loosely to densely black or black and white hairy; teeth 2-3 mm. Petals violet; standard obovate to rhom­bic-elliptic, 20-25 × 6-7 mm, apex widely emarginate to retuse; wings 17-22 mm, limbs narrowly obovate-obtriangular, widest near obliquely incised tip; keel 15-19 mm. Legumes sessile, ovoid to globose, bladderlike inflated, 16-30 mm, 10-15(-20) mm high and wide, grooved ventrally and dorsally, with a straight beak ca. 1 mm; valves glabrous or covered with scat­tered appressed white or black hairs.

Foothill and mountain semideserts and deserts; below 3200 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbeki­stan].