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.