Astragalus pycnostachyus

Loco weed

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Loco weed is a California native perennial herb found in coastal areas of California, often growing in open grasslands and coastal scrub environments. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces green-white or cream-colored flowers in dense, overlapping clusters with petals 7 to 10 millimeters long. Growing with stout, somewhat erect stems 40 to 90 centimeters tall that are reddish and hollow, it forms clumped, leafy clusters with a white-woolly appearance. Its compound leaves are 3 to 15 centimeters long, featuring 23 to 41 narrow leaflets densely packed along the stem. The distinctive fruit is reflexed, ovate, and slightly inflated, with a 5 to 8 millimeter stiff, hooked beak that adds to the plant's unique architectural structure.

California counties: Marin, San Mateo

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