Astragalus pauperculus

Depauperate milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Depauperate milkvetch is a California native annual found in the northern California Ranges, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, and northern Sacramento Valley in open, vernally moist volcanic clay habitats at elevations of 40 to 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to May, this delicate plant produces purple flowers with pale or white inner wing margins, with banner petals 5.4 to 10.5 millimeters long recurved about 40 degrees. Growing with slender, generally incurved-ascending stems less than 10 centimeters tall, it has a fine, strigose appearance. Its leaves are 1.5 to 5 centimeters long, composed of 5 to 11 slightly spaced leaflets that are oblanceolate, 2 to 8 millimeters long with notched or blunt tips. The fruit is a narrow, crescent-shaped pod 12 to 20 millimeters long, often purple or purple-mottled, with a short beak.

Habitat: Open, vernally moist, volcanic clay

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 40-1200 m

Bioregions: CaR, n SNF, n ScV.

California counties: Butte, Tehama, Shasta, Placer

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