Astragalus kentrophyta var. tegetarius
Mat milkvetch
Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Mat milkvetch is a California native perennial found in the central Sierra Nevada and White and Inyo Mountains in open, rocky areas at elevations of 2,700 to 3,600 meters. Flowering from June to September, this plant produces purple (occasionally white) flowers with banners 3.9 to 6.2 millimeters long nestled among its spiny mat-like form. Growing as a low, spreading mat with stems that are strigose and somewhat spiny, it forms dense ground-covering clusters. Its leaves are composed of 5 to 9 soft leaflets, each minutely spine-tipped and measuring 2 to 20 millimeters long. The fruit is generally 4 to 8 millimeters long, containing 5 to 8 ovules.
Habitat: Open, rocky areas
Bloom period: Jun-Sep
Elevation: 2700-3600 m
Bioregions: c SNH, W&I
California counties: Mono, Inyo, Tuolumne
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.