Astragalus lentiginosus var. borreganus

Borrego milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Borrego milkvetch is a California native perennial herb found in the Colorado Desert bioregion in sandy habitats at elevations from below sea level to 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces pink-purple flowers with a banner 12 to 14.8 millimeters long in clusters of 13 to 50 blooms. Growing with ascending stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall and densely covered in silvery hairs, it forms a compact herbaceous plant. Its leaves are 6 to 16 centimeters long, composed of 7 to 19 leaflets that are approximately obovate and 4 to 21 millimeters in length. The plant produces distinctive erect to ascending fruits that are 15 to 23 millimeters long, lanceolate in shape, and covered in silky hairs.

Habitat: Sand

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: -67-1200 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Diego, Imperial, San Bernardino, Riverside, Kern, Los Angeles

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