Astragalus webberi

Webber's milkvetch

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Webber's milkvetch is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada and Warner Mountains on open, shrubby slopes and dry woodland at elevations of 850 to 1,550 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces cream-colored flowers in clusters of 6 to 14, with banner petals recurved 50 to 75 degrees. Growing with slender, decumbent stems 15 to 50 centimeters long and a robust, widely branched habit, the plant is densely covered in fine hairs that give its leaflets a distinctive satiny sheen. Its compound leaves are 2.5 to 15 centimeters long, featuring 9 to 25 leaflets that are narrowly to widely obovate and measuring 5 to 35 millimeters in length. The fruit is an ascending, stiff-leathery pod 20 to 35 millimeters long and 7 to 12 millimeters wide, with a nearly round cross-section.

Habitat: Open, shrubby slopes, dry woodland

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: 850-1550 m

Bioregions: n SNH, Wrn.

California counties: Plumas, Modoc, Sierra

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