Astragalus douglasii

Douglas milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Douglas milkvetch is a California native perennial herb found in dry, open habitats at elevations ranging from low to moderate landscapes. Flowering from late spring to summer, this plant produces delicate white to pale yellow flowers in loose clusters of 10 to 30 blossoms, with banner petals recurved at a dramatic 60 to 90 degree angle. Growing with many stems that are decumbent or erect and reaching 20 to 100 centimeters tall, the plant has a leafy appearance with a strigose (minutely hairy) texture. Its compound leaves feature 7 to 25 leaflets, each 5 to 25 millimeters long, with elliptic, ovate, or obovate shapes and obtuse or shallowly notched tips. The distinctive fruit is a bladdery pod 25 to 60 millimeters long, spreading or ascending, with an erect, pointed beak and sparse hairs.

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Madera, Mariposa, San Joaquin, Ventura, Nevada, Fresno, Yolo, Merced, Imperial, Stanislaus, Kings

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