Astragalus nuttallii

Nuttall's milkvetch, Nuttall's Milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Nuttall's milkvetch is a California native perennial herb found in dense tangles with prostrate to erect stems. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces cream to lavender-tinged flowers in dense clusters with 20 to 125 individual blooms, each with a banner petal 10 to 15 millimeters long. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with fine, incurved-ascending hairs, it forms robust and leafy clumps. Its compound leaves feature 21 to 43 crowded leaflets, each approximately 3 to 25 millimeters long and slightly obovate or oblong with notched tips. The distinctive fruit is a papery, bladdery pod 20 to 60 millimeters long, containing 14 to 38 seeds.

California counties: Humboldt, Monterey, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, San Mateo, Ventura, Marin, Riverside, Stanislaus

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