Astragalus gambelianus

Gambel milkvetch, little blue loco, Little Blue Loco

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Gambel milkvetch is a California native annual found in the Central California Floristic Province in open, grassy areas and scrub at elevations below 1,450 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces white flowers with purple-tinged petals in small clusters, with banner petals curving slightly. Growing with slender, erect to somewhat decumbent stems 2 to 30 centimeters tall, it has a delicate, open structure. Its leaves are composed of 7 to 15 small leaflets, each 1 to 9 millimeters long, with blunt or slightly notched tips that are approximately oblanceolate in shape. The fruit is small, ovate to round, and slightly wrinkled, with minute hairs covering its surface.

Habitat: Open, grassy areas, scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 1450 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

California counties: Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Ventura, Kern, San Bernardino, Tulare, Monterey, El Dorado, San Mateo, Placer, Calaveras, Siskiyou, Contra Costa, Lake, Madera, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, Santa Clara, Colusa, Mariposa, Amador, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Butte, Napa, Tuolumne, San Benito, Sonoma, San Joaquin, Marin, Humboldt, Merced, Nevada, Stanislaus, Sutter, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano, Trinity, Yuba

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