Astragalus lentiginosus var. ineptus

Freckled milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Freckled milkvetch is a California native perennial found in the northern Sierra Nevada and eastern Sierra Nevada in open, gravelly places and talus slopes at elevations of 1,250 to 3,700 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces cream-colored flowers with a banner 8.8 to 12.2 millimeters long arranged in clusters of 10 to 21 blooms. Growing with decumbent stems 10 to 30 centimeters long, covered in grayish ascending hairs, it spreads low across rocky terrain. Its compound leaves feature 9 to 21 crowded leaflets, each small and obovate, typically 2 to 10 millimeters long. The fruit is a distinctive bladdery pod 10 to 18 millimeters long with a thin papery texture and an erect or slightly curved beak.

Habitat: Open, gravelly places, talus slopes

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1250-3700 m

Bioregions: SNH (+- n SNH), SNE.

California counties: Kern, Inyo, Mono, Tuolumne, Alpine, Ventura, Tulare, Placer

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