Freckled Milk-vetch
Astragalus lentiginosus
Pea family (Fabaceae)

Freckled Milkvetch is the most variable of all milkvetch with 50 different varieties. Populations of this milkvetch and other similarly short-lived Astragalus, rise and fall cyclically with short-term climate precipitation cycles. This milkvetch is usually an early spring Astragalus. It grows in dense and large tufts of numerous arching leaflets, usually on red stems. Where you find one mound of this plant, you will often find a dozen more within twenty feet. Beautifully symmetrical, delicately streaked flowers top the mass of leaves on leafless straight stems. This plant is toxic to livestock, especially to sheep. David Douglas (of Douglas Fir fame) is given credit for discovering A. lentiginosus for science in the early 1800s in northeast Oregon.

Description

Short-lived perennial with stems to 20" tall, somewhat hairy. Leaves to 6" long, leaflets 9-23, 1/10-1" long, narrow, elliptic to ovate or lanceolate, hairy or glabrous on one or both sides. Peduncles 1/4-5" long. Racemes 11-30 flowered, flowers upright to declining, short pedicles. Flowers from 1/3-1" long pink purple, light yellow, white, or suffused with pink or purple. Pods upright to declining, usually sessile, inflated or not, hairy or smooth, mottled or not.

Field Marks

White and pink striped flowers in upright racemes on stems to 5".

© Al Schneider