Astracantha granatensis (Lam.) Podlech
Astragalus granatensis Lam., A. boissieri Fisch.
Eng.: Milkvetch. Spa.: Piorno blanco. Fre.: Astragale.
Subshrub, 20-40(50) cm in height, spiny, hermaphrodite, cushion-shaped, highly branched from the base, covered with whitish hairs 0.3-2.5 mm, with gum resin on the stems. Leaves up to 5 cm, alternate, grouped at the end of the branchlets, petiolate, paripinnate, with rachis ending in a spine, and with 4-8 pairs of leaflets, 4-15 × 1-2.5 mm, elliptic, mucronate or ending in a small spine; at first with a double indumentum consisting of densely distributed short hairs and scattered long crisped hairs; stipules 11-16 mm, triangular-lanceolate, papery, yellowish, fused up to halfway, with scattered hairs when young and glabrescent later. Inflorescences in axillary glomeruli, sessile or subsessile, with 2-3 flowers, with bracts 6-8 × 3-4 mm, lanceolate, hyaline, and bracteoles with dense hairs on the upper half, that hides the calyces. Calyx 6-7 mm, subcylindrical or campanulate, with 5 equal lobes, of the same length as the tube, cottony-white. Corolla papilionoid, yellowish-white with purplish venation, marcescent, with the standard fused to the receptacle and the wings and keel fused to the staminal tube. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary sessile, unilocular. Pod c. 5 mm, sessile, compressed laterally, hairy, included in the calyx, with 1 seed. Seeds 2-3 mm, reniform or ellipsoid, olive green or brownish.
Flowering:
April to July.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
Mediterranean thickets in high mountains, on calcareous or schistose soils. 1,000-3,000 m.
Distribution:
Iberian-Mauritanian species, present in the mountains of central, eastern and southern Spain and Morocco (Rif, Middle Atlas and High Atlas).
Observations:
A closely related species, recently described (1989) from the Jebel Lexhab in the Rif (Morocco) that probably should be in the genre Astracantha, is Astragalus meuselii Romo. It is a slightly larger plant, with obtuse, not spiny leaflets, 5-7 mm, and pods 4 × 1.5-2 mm.
Conservation status:
Astracantha granatensis is a relatively common species and it is not considered threatened; on the other hand, there is very little information on Astragalus meuselii. Currently, neither have been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) A. granatensis has been considered as Least Concern (LC).