Astragalus sparsus Decne.
Eng.: Milkvetch. Fre.: Astragale.
Perennial herbaceous plant, highly branched, with stems procumbent up to 100 cm, only somewhat woody at the base, reddish and whitish villous. Leaves 5-10 cm; with stipules 1-1.2 cm, triangular-acuminate; with 10-15 pairs of leaflets, petiolulate, ovate, elliptic or oblong, often folded, obtuse or retuse, with sparse whitish hairs on both sides. Inflorescences in axillary racemes, shortly pedunculate or sometimes sessile on the leaf axils. Calyx 1.5-1.8 cm, with subulate teeth somewhat shorter than the tube, hairy. Corolla 2.5-3.2 cm, papilionoid, intense yellow. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary sessile. Pods 3-4.5 × 0.7-0.8 cm, arranged in stellate groups, cylindrical, compact and smooth, slightly curved and ending in a beak 5-8 mm, white tomentose, with 10-20 seeds. Seeds 4 × 3 mm, ± rectangular and slightly compressed, brown.
Flowering:
March to June.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
Wadis in desert areas.
Distribution:
Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, Arabia.
Observations:
A. maurorum Murb. [A. akkensis var. maurorum (Murb.) Maire, A. akkensis var. pinoyi Maire, A. pseudogombo Fern. Casas, A. gombo subsp. pseudogombo (Fern. Casas) Romo, A. gomboeformis var. oranensis (Barratte) Maire], is another closely related species, creeping with herbaceous stems, large leaves and showy yellow flowers in stellate glomeruli. It grows in Morocco and Algeria.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, they are not considered threatened. Currently, they have not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Red List of vascular plants of Egypt (Flora Aegyptiaca Vol 1, 2000) it is listed as “Endangered”.
