Astragalus atratus var. mensanus

Darwin mesa milkvetch, Darwin Mesa milk-vetch, Darwin Mesa milk-vetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Darwin mesa milkvetch is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native perennial found in the northern and western Desert Mountains near Panamint Valley, Inyo County in open foothills with pinyon and sagebrush at elevations of 1,700 to 2,350 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces dingy white and dull lilac flowers with a distinctive banner petal that appears fiddle-shaped and recurves almost 90 degrees. Growing with wiry, loose-matted stems 3 to 25 centimeters tall that are minutely strigose, it scrambles through scrub with a distinctive growth habit. Its compound leaves are 1.5 to 15 centimeters long, featuring 7 to 15 linear to slightly ovate leaflets 3 to 16 millimeters long with acute or shallowly notched tips. The fruit is a pendulous, linear-oblong pod 16 to 22 millimeters long, compressed side-to-side and covered in minute strigose hairs.

Habitat: Open foothills with pinyon, sagebrush

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 1700-2350 m

Bioregions: DMtns (n and w of Panamint Valley, Inyo Co.).

California counties: Inyo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.