Astragalus lentiginosus var. fremontii

Fremont's milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Fremont's milkvetch is a California native perennial herb found in the Tehachapi, San Joaquin Valley, south coastal ranges, western Transverse Ranges, eastern Sierra Nevada, and eastern Mojave Desert regions in open sandy flats and gravelly areas at elevations of 400 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces purple flowers in clusters with 8 to 30 blooms, with banner petals 9 to 12 millimeters long. Growing with decumbent to erect stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall, it has a sparsely to densely hairy appearance. Its compound leaves feature 9 to 19 obovate leaflets, each 5 to 19 millimeters long, arranged along stems up to 12 centimeters. The distinctive fruit is a bladdery pod 14 to 36 millimeters long with a slightly incurved 2 to 10 millimeter beak.

Habitat: Open sandy flats, gravel

Bloom period: Apr-Jul(Oct, at lower elevations, DMoj)

Elevation: 400-2900 m

Bioregions: Teh, SnJV, SCoRI, WTR, SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Ventura, Mono, Riverside, 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.