Family |
Fabaceae
Astragalus schizopterus
Boiss.
Leb. Syr. Tur.
Astragalus schizopterus Boiss.
First published in Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium 2: 82 (1843)
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CXLVIII nº 6; 1969)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial with a shortly branched rhizome; stems very short (5–10 cm), crowded with numerous leaves and forming mats of 20–30 cm in diameter.
• Leaves: Upper surface glabrous; rest of plant covered with an appressed pubescence. Stipules lanceolate-acuminate, hispid. Leaves with 7–15 pairs of ovate-orbicular leaflets, often slightly retuse.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Peduncles scapiform, few in number, shorter than the leaves or equalling or slightly exceeding them, sometimes decumbent. Racemes rather loose with 8–16(–20) flowers on pedicels 2–3 mm long. Bracts triangular, very short, scarcely longer than the pedicels. Flowers erect, spreading, or slightly deflexed, up to c. 32–35 mm. Calyx slightly gibbous at the base, 13–15 mm, with very short blackish hairs; teeth twice shorter than the tube. Standard twice as long as the calyx, greatly exceeding the wings, which are bilobed.
• Fruit: Pods erect, with some appressed hairs, brown, purplish-mottled, straight or slightly arched, 30–35 mm long, laterally compressed, slightly keeled dorsally and grooved ventrally, tapering into a long style.
• Phenology: Flowers in late spring (April–May).
• Habitat & elevation: Dry mountain and steppe environments.
• Lebanese distribution: Recorded by Mouterde from Qubbayyat (northern Lebanon).
• Syrian distribution: Around Deli Bekirli; additional records from central and eastern Syria (e.g., Anti-Lebanon and steppe zones) as illustrated by historical collections.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Türkiye.
• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A highly distinctive species by its dense mats, short stems, numerous rounded leaflets, loose scapiform inflorescences, and long, mottled pods. Mouterde notes considerable variation in leaflet number, petiole length, and peduncle length within single populations, suggesting inherent polymorphism rather than taxonomic subdivision