Front Range Milkvetch

Batidophaca variegata Rydberg
Astragalus sparsijlorus majusculus A. Gray, Proc Am. Acad. 6: 206. 1864. Tium variegalum Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 34: 47. 1907.
A cespitose perennial, with a taproot; stems many, erect or ascending, more or less mottled with purple or brown, 3-4 dm. high; leaves ascending, 5-S cm. long; the rachis glabrous or nearly so; stipules triangular or deltoid, distinct, 4-5 mm. long; leaflets 13-21, obovate to orbicular, rounded or retuse at the apex, sparingly strigose, soon glabrate, 5-10 mm. long; peduncles 4—7 cm. long; racemes short, 1-2 cm. long, or in fruit 3-6 cm. long, 5-16 flowered; calyx black-hairy, the tube 2-2.5 mm. long, the teeth subulate, 1-2 mm. long; corolla ochroleucous; banner 6-7 mm. long, obovate, purpleveined; wings 5 mm. long, the blade broadly oblanceolate, longer than the claw, with a rounded auricle; keel-petals shorter, the blade broadly lunate, rounded at the apex with a small auricle; pod about 2 cm. long, 4 mm. wide, lance-oblong, tapering at each end, slightly arched, mottled with purplish-brown, minutely strigose, sulcate on the lower suture except at the end, the cross-section cordate.
Type locality: Platte Canon, Colorado.
Distribution: Colorado.