Astragalus curtipes

Morro milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Morro milkvetch is a California native perennial found in southern Central Coast, southern Coastal, and northern Channel Islands bioregions in coastal shrubland and grassy areas at elevations below 450 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces cream-colored flowers with faintly lilac-tipped keel petals in dense clusters of 15 to 35 blooms. Growing with ascending stems in clumped formations 20 to 40 centimeters tall and covered in fine gray-like hairs, the plant has a distinctively compact structure. Its leaves are complex, featuring 25 to 39 leaflets ranging from 2 to 25 millimeters long, with linear-oblong to narrowly obovate shapes and blunt or shallowly notched tips. The fruit is a distinctive bladdery pod 23 to 36 millimeters long, ascending or spreading with a half-ovate profile and sparse minute hairs.

Habitat: shrubland, grassy or disturbed areas near coast

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: < 450 m

Bioregions: s CCo, SCoR, SCo, n ChI.

California counties: Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, San Joaquin, San Diego, San Benito, Los Angeles, Monterey

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