Relatives

Astragalus falcatus Lam. - Sickle-shaped Milk-vetch, Falcate Milk-vetch.

Taxonomic position.

Family Fabaceae Lindl., genus Astragalus L.

Synonyms.

Astragalus virescens Ait., Tragacantha falcata (Lam.) Kuntze

Morphology and biology.

Perennial well-leaved plant 55-100 cm tall, sparsely hairy, weakly branched. Root system strong. Stipules lanceolate, acute, free. Leaves with 15-20 pairs of elliptic-oblong leaflets. Racemes lax, after flowering extensely elongate, on peduncles equal to floral leaf. Bract whitish, equal to tube. Calyx campanulate, its teeth triangular, shorter than tube. Flowers drooping, greenish-yellow, 10-12 mm long. Pods sessile, drooping, linear, falcately bent, coriaceous, bilocular, sharpened into straight subulate beak. Flowers in June - July, fruits in July - August. Cross-pollinated entomophilous plant. 2n=16.

Distribution.

East and south of the European Russia, Urals, West Siberia, Caucasus.

Ecology.

Steppe and forest-steppe zones, in mountains from lower to upper montane zone. Fringes and glades of light broad-leaved forests, meadows and meadow steppes, feather-grass-forb steppes. Drought-resistant.

Economic value.

Forage plant. Competes with medick in yield of green mass, but being eaten fresh worse than sainfoin. Seed yield is 4-5 centner per hectare on the average, maximum 7.4 centner per hectare, hay yield 60 centner per hectare, yield of green mass 200 centner per hectare.

References:

Galushko AI. 1980. Flora of the North Caucasus: Handbook. V.2. 352 p. (In Russian).
Grossheim AA. 1952. Flora of Caucasus. 2nd ed. V.5. P.245-335. (In Russian).
Shishkin BK., ed. 1946. Flora URSS. V.12. Moscow; Leningrad. 919 p. (In Russian).
Fedorov AA., Tzvelev NN., eds. 1987. Flora of the European part of the USSR. V.6. Leningrad: Nauka. 254 p. (In Russian).
Polozhij AV., Malyshev LI., ed. 1994. Flora of Siberia. V.9. Fabaceae (Leguminosae). Novosibirsk: Nauka. 280 p. (In Russian).
Malyshev LI., Peshkova GA., eds. 1979. Flora of the Central Siberia. V.2. 506 p. (In Russian).
Roskov YR. et al. 2005. ILDIS World Database of Legumes. [Online] Available at: http://www.ildis.org/LegumeWeb?sciname=Astragalus%20falcatus .

© N.I.Dzyubenko, E.A.Dzyubenko