Astragalus congdonii

Congdon's milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Congdon's milkvetch is a California native perennial found in central Sierra Nevada foothills in open, disturbed sites in scrub and woodland at elevations of 150 to 850 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces cream-colored flowers with banner petals recurved at about 45 degrees in loose clusters. Growing with ascending stems 20 to 70 centimeters tall and covered in spreading hairs, it has an often coarse appearance. Its compound leaves are 3 to 14 centimeters long with 11 to 37 leaflets that are elliptic to round, 3 to 15 millimeters long with blunt or notched tips. The distinctive fruit is a reflexed, linear pod 15 to 35 millimeters long with sparse to dense appressed and spreading hairs.

Habitat: Open, disturbed sites in scrub, woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 150-850 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNF.

California counties: Fresno, Tulare, Mariposa, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne

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