Astragalus crotalariae

Salton milkvetch, Salton milk-vetch, Salton milk-vetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Salton milkvetch is a California native perennial herb found in the Colorado Desert in desert valleys, washes, and sandy or gravelly areas at elevations from 60 meters below to 300 meters above sea level. Flowering from January to April, this plant produces bright red-purple or white flowers with a banner petal 21 to 28 millimeters long that curves back at about 40 degrees. Growing with bushy-clumped stems 15 to 60 centimeters tall that are often hollow and somewhat strigose, it forms a coarse and slightly ill-scented plant. Its leaves are 5 to 16.5 centimeters long with 9 to 19 leaflets that are approximately 5 to 35 millimeters long, broadly obovate to round, with flat, thick surfaces and slightly notched tips. The fruit is an inflated, ovate pod 20 to 30 millimeters long with a distinctive fine, net-like pattern that dries to a thick-papery texture.

Habitat: Valleys, washes, in desert foothills or open, sandy, gravelly areas

Bloom period: Jan-Apr

Elevation: -60-300 m

Bioregions: DSon

California counties: San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, Madera, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Inyo

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