. Botanical and vegetation survey of Carter County, Montana, Bureau of Land Management-administered lands . Botany; Rare plants. Amorpha canescens Pursh LEAD PLANT Bean Family (Fabaceae) CONSERVATION STATUS U. S, Fish and Wildlife Service: None. Bureau of Land Management: None. Montana Natural Heritage Program: G5 SH: Demonstrably secure globally, but known in Montana only from records generally older than 50 years. DESCRIPTION: Lead plant is a shrub with few to several, erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched stems, 3-8 dm (1-2 ft.) high. In marginal sites, the plant may die back to
. Botanical and vegetation survey of Carter County, Montana, Bureau of Land Management-administered lands . Botany; Rare plants. Amorpha canescens Pursh LEAD PLANT Bean Family (Fabaceae) CONSERVATION STATUS U. S, Fish and Wildlife Service: None. Bureau of Land Management: None. Montana Natural Heritage Program: G5 SH: Demonstrably secure globally, but known in Montana only from records generally older than 50 years. DESCRIPTION: Lead plant is a shrub with few to several, erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched stems, 3-8 dm (1-2 ft.) high. In marginal sites, the plant may die back to near the base each year. The alternate leaves have a short petiole and 27-41 narrowly elliptic leaflets, 8-15 mm (ca. in.) long. Foliage is covered with very dense, short white hairs, giving the plant a hoary appearance. The violet flowers are borne in dense spike-like inflorescences, 7-15 cm (3-6 in.) long, arising on long stems from the leaf axils. Each small flower has a single petal longer than the densely hairy calyx that is ca. 2 mm long. There are 10 bright orange stamens exserted beyond the petal. The glandular and hairy fruits are ca. 4 mm long and egg-shaped with a long beak. Flowering in late June-July; fruiting through summer. Lead plant could be confused with members of the prairie-clover genus or scurfpea genus (Dalea or Psoralea), but unlike these plants, it has woody stems, it does not have leaves with conspicuous resin-like glands, and it has flowers with only one petal. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION Global distribution: Great Plains and Midwest, from Indiana south to Texas, west to Manitoba and eastern Montana; south to New Mexico (Dom 1984, 1992, Great Plains Flora Association 1986). Montana distribution: Historically known from southeastern Montana by two pre-1950 collections from Carter and Rosebud cos.; also reported on a 1983 checklist for the Colstrip vicinity, Rosebud County (Coenenberg 1983) with no known collections. The latter would provide basis for
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Keywords: ., bhlc, bookcentury1900, bookcollectionamericana, booksubjectbotany
