Astragalus lentiginosus var. nigricalycis

Black hair milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Black hair milkvetch is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada Foothills, San Joaquin Valley, south Coast Ranges, and western Transverse Ranges in dry, grassy areas and roadcuts at elevations of 100 to 1,250 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces cream to yellow flowers with banner petals 12 to 18.5 millimeters long in clusters of 10 to 32 blooms. Growing with stout ascending stems 25 to 50 centimeters tall, it has distinctive spreading, curly or wavy black hairs among its flowers and fruits. Its compound leaves are 4 to 16 centimeters long, featuring 19 to 25 oblong to obovate leaflets measuring 6 to 25 millimeters. The fruit is a greatly inflated, bladdery papery pod 20 to 35 millimeters long with a 4 to 8 millimeter beak.

Habitat: Dry, grassy areas, roadcuts

Bloom period: Mar-May(fall)

Elevation: 100-1250 m

Bioregions: s SNF, SnJV, SCoRI, WTR.

California counties: Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, Kings, San Benito, Tulare, San Diego

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