Astragalus oxyphysus

Stanislaus milkvetch, Stanislaus Milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Stanislaus milkvetch is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada Foothills, San Joaquin Valley, south Coast Ranges, western Transverse Ranges, and southern Great Basin in arid grassland and scrub at elevations of 100 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces cream-colored flowers in clusters of 20 to 65 blooms, with banner petals recurving at about 50 degrees. Growing with robust, bushy-clumped stems 30 to 80 centimeters tall and fine, wavy spreading hairs, it forms a dense, upright habit. Its compound leaves are 4.5 to 17 centimeters long, featuring 11 to 31 lanceolate leaflets, with stipule sheaths that are often hairy and typically ruptured by stem growth. The distinctive fruit is an inflated, translucent pod 25 to 45 millimeters long, spreading or hanging with a stalk-like base and sparsely hairy surface.

Habitat: Arid grassland, scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 100-1200 m

Bioregions: s SNF, SnJV, SCoRI, WTR, SnGb.

California counties: Kern, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Kings, Fresno, San Benito, Monterey, Stanislaus, Merced, Tulare, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Madera

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