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Astragalus kahiricus DC.

A. longiflorus Delile

Eng.: Milkvetch.   Fre.: Astragale.   Ara. (Egypt): Zabb el qott.

Perennial herbaceous plant, 40-80 cm in height, with a woody base, branched from the base, with erect or ascending stems, ridged and hollow, canescent. Leaves 8-25 cm, imparipinnate; with triangular stipules acute or acuminate; rachis 1-2 mm wide, flattened; with 4-9 pairs of leaflets, 1.5-2.5 × 1.2-2 cm, petiolulate, broadly ovate to orbicular, with a truncated or obtuse apex, glabrescent on the upper side and white-pubescent on the underside. Inflorescences in racemes 8-20 cm, with the main axis elongating during fruiting; pedicellate flowers, with pedicel 1-2 mm. Calyx 1.5-1.8 cm, with teeth 3-4 mm, subulate, densely white-tomentose, accrescent and inflated during fruiting —then reaching 2-2.5 cm —. Corolla 2-3 cm, papilionoid, yellow. Androecium diadelphous. Ovary sessile. Pod 0.8-1 cm, ovoid-elliptic, glabrous and transversely ribbed, included in the accrescent calyx, ending in a beak of 2-3 mm, with 4-6 seeds. Seeds 5-6 × 3-4 mm, reniform, brown.