Astragalus traskiae

Trask's milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Trask's milkvetch is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in the southern Channel Islands including San Nicolas and Santa Barbara islands in sandy coastal bluffs and dunes at elevations generally below 200 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces cream-colored flowers in clusters with 12 to 30 ascending or spreading blooms, featuring a banner petal 14 to 18 millimeters long that curves gently. Growing with several ascending stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, this widely branched herb forms an open, leafy structure covered in dense grayish hairs. Its compound leaves are 4 to 10 centimeters long, comprising 21 to 29 leaflets that are approximately 5 to 15 millimeters long and mostly obovate or ovate in shape. The fruit is a pendulous or ascending pod 8 to 16 millimeters long, with a three-sided shape and minute wavy hairs.

Habitat: Sandy coastal bluffs, dunes

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: generally < 200 m

Bioregions: s ChI (San Nicolas, Santa Barbara islands).

California counties: Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles

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