Astragalus nyensis

Nye milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1

Nye milkvetch is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native annual found in desert mountain foothills at elevations of 800 to 1,520 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces white flowers with faint lilac-purple veining, with petals measuring 4 to 5 millimeters and slightly recurved. Growing with slender, nearly erect stems, it forms a delicate annual herb with distinctive leaf characteristics. Its leaves feature 7 to 13 small leaflets, each 2 to 7 millimeters long, crowded and loosely folded with blunt, shallowly notched tips. The fruit is a linear-oblong pod 13 to 18 millimeters long, reflexed and incurved in a quarter circle, with a pale to brownish papery texture.

Habitat: Gravelly outwash fans and flats, in foothills of desert mountains

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 800-1520 m

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