Astragalus crassicarpus

Last updated

Astragalus crassicarpus
Astragalus crassicarpus (5257781877).jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Astragalus
Species:
A. crassicarpus
Binomial name
Astragalus crassicarpus
Nutt. [3]

Astragalus crassicarpus, known as ground plum or buffalo plum, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, native to North America. [3] It was described in 1813. [4] The fruit is edible and was used by Native Americans as food and horse medicine. It is a host of afranius duskywing larvae. It is also known as groundplum milkvetch and pomme de prairie. [3] [5]

Contents

Description

The species is 1 to 2 feet tall with pinkish purple flowers and edible fruit pods. The plant grows from thick taproots and several long hairy stems lay on the ground. Its leaves are alternate, between 4–13 cm long, each with 15–27 leaflets that are either elliptic or oblong. The flowers grow in elongated groups among the leaves and the fleshy fruit, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 cm in width, is round. [6] It blooms from May to June. [7]

Astragalus crassicarpus is known as ground plum, though it shares this name with some other species in the genus Astragalus such as Astragalus plattensis . [8] The two species are sometimes confused, though in general, the fruiting pods of A. crassicarpus are glabrous (hairless) while those of A. plattensis are hairy. [9]

Distribution and habitat

Astragalus crassicarpus grows primarily in the Great Plains of Canada and the United States, from British Columbia east to Ontario and south to Texas. [5] [9] It has been recorded as far east as Will County, Illinois, but whether it was originally native to this area or an introduction is unknown. [10]

Ground plums grow in sunny drained soil. They can be found in prairies, pastures, limestone out-croppings and rocky open woods throughout the Mississippi Valley. [6] It is common throughout much of the southern parts of its range. [9]

Cultivation

Ground plum has a large and deep taproot. It can only be grown from seed and it is also slow to germinate. The ripe seeds are glossy black with a very hard seed coat. [11]

Edibility

Ground plums Astragalus crassicarpus fruits.png
Ground plums

The name crassicarpus (from both Latin and Greek) means "thick fruited" which refers to the plant's fleshy fruits. [10] The Dakota people gave the plant the name "pte ta wote" (buffalo food), while the Omaha and Ponca people gave the plant two names, "tdika shande" and "wamide wenigthe" (something to go with seed). [6] The Omaha and Ponca used the plant to prepare corn seed for planting. The Dakota ate the fruit right off of the plant and the Pawnee ate them to sate their thirst. [6] The fruit dries out once the seeds ripen, making them become tough and inedible by midsummer. [12] It was used as medicine for horses by the Lakota people. [13]

It is a food source for sheep and cattle. [12] Although the fruit is edible, the rest of the plant is poisonous. [14] The immature fruit can be eaten raw, cooked, or pickled. [6] Its fruit tastes like a sweet pea and they were eaten by the original inhabitants of the prairie, though the raw fruit has been described as "hardly appetizing". [6] [9] The cooked fruits taste like string beans. [9] Similar looking species are completely poisonous. [6] The afranius duskywing butterfly ( Erynnis afranius ) uses the plant as a host for its larvae. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Prunus virginiana</i> Species of plant

Prunus virginiana, commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry, is a species of bird cherry native to North America.

<i>Prunus maritima</i> Species of tree

Prunus maritima, the beach plum, is a species of plum native to the East Coast of the United States. It is a choice wild edible and its few pests and salt tolerance make it a resilient fruit crop for degraded lands and urban soils.

<i>Lomatium</i> Genus of flowering plants

Lomatium is a genus in the family Apiaceae. It consists of about 100 species. Its common names include biscuitroot, Indian parsley, and desert parsley. It is in the family Apiaceae and therefore related to many familiar edible species such as carrots and celery. Native to western Northern America and northern Mexico, some Lomatium species are extensively used by Native Americans in the inland Pacific Northwest as a staple food.

<i>Euonymus atropurpureus</i> Species of flowering plant

Euonymus atropurpureus is a species of shrub in the bittersweet family. It has the common names American wahoo, eastern wahoo, burningbush and hearts bursting with love. It is native to eastern North America.

<i>Podocarpus elatus</i> Species of conifer

Podocarpus elatus, known as the plum pine, the brown pine, the Illawarra plum or the Queensland Christmas tree, is a species of Podocarpus endemic to the east coast of Australia, in eastern New South Wales and eastern Queensland.

<i>Shepherdia argentea</i> Species of Shepherdia

Shepherdia argentea, commonly called silver buffaloberry, bull berry, or thorny buffaloberry, is a species of Shepherdia in the Oleaster family.

<i>Balsamorhiza</i> Genus of plants in the sunflower family

Balsamorhiza is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae known commonly as balsamroots. These are perennials with fleshy taproots and caudices bearing erect stems and large, basal leaves. Atop the tall stems are showy yellow sunflower-like blooms. Balsamroots are native to western North America.

<i>Semecarpus australiensis</i> Species of tree in the family Anacardiaceae

Semecarpus australiensis, commonly known as the tar tree, native cashew, marking nut, or cedar plum, is a species of tree in the cashew, sumac and mango family Anacardiaceae, native to parts of Melanesia and northern Australia. Contact with the plant can cause serious allergic reactions, a common characteristic of this family.

<i>Calyptridium monandrum</i> Species of flowering plant

Calyptridium monandrum, synonym Cistanthe monandra, is a species of flowering plant in the family Montiaceae known by the common name common pussypaws.

<i>Crepis occidentalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Crepis occidentalis is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names western hawksbeard, or largeflower hawksbeard. It is native to western Canada and the western United States.

<i>Inocarpus fagifer</i> Species of plant

Inocarpus fagifer, commonly known as the Tahitian chestnut or Polynesian chestnut, is a species of flowering plant in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family, Fabaceae. The tree has a wide range in the tropics of the south-west Pacific and south-east Asian regions, and a history of traditional use by the peoples of Polynesia and Melanesia. It is the only edible and culturally important member of the genus Inocarpus.

<i>Prunus angustifolia</i> Species of tree

Prunus angustifolia, known commonly as Chickasaw plum, Cherokee plum, Florida sand plum, sandhill plum, or sand plum, is a North American species of plum-bearing tree. It was originally cultivated by Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans. The species' name angustifolia refers to its narrow leaves. It became the official state fruit of Kansas in 2022.

<i>Dalea purpurea</i> Species of legume

Dalea purpurea is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known as purple prairie clover. Native to central North America, purple prairie clover is a relatively common member of the Great Plains and prairie ecosystems. It blooms in the summer with dense spikes of bright purple flowers that attract many species of insects.

<i>Helianthus petiolaris</i> Species of sunflower

Helianthus petiolaris is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae, commonly known as the prairie sunflower or lesser sunflower. Naturalist and botanist Thomas Nuttall was the first to describe the prairie sunflower in 1821. The word petiolaris in Latin means, “having a petiole”. The species originated in Western United States, but has since expanded east. The prairie sunflower is sometimes considered a weed.

<i>Hedysarum boreale</i> Species of legume

Hedysarum boreale is a species of flowering plant in the Fabaceae, or legume family, and is known by the common names Utah sweetvetch, boreal sweet-vetch, northern sweetvetch, and plains sweet-broom. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in northern and western regions of Canada and the United States. The ssp. mackenzii can even be found in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Astragalus tyghensis is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Tygh Valley milkvetch. It is endemic to Oregon in the United States, where it is known only from the Tygh Valley of Wasco County.

<i>Psoralidium tenuiflorum</i> Species of plant

Psoralidium tenuiflorum, the slimflower scurfpea, is a perennial in the pea family. It is about 2–3 feet (0.6–0.9 m) tall and has a lot of leaves on top. Its leaves can reach a length of 3 inches (80 mm). This flower can be found mainly in the central and southwestern U.S.

<i>Erigeron pumilus</i> Species of flowering plant

Erigeron pumilus, the shaggy fleabane, or vernal daisy, is a hairy North American species of perennial plants in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across much of western Canada and the western United States, from British Columbia east to Saskatchewan and south as far as Oklahoma and the San Bernardino Mountains of California. There have been reports of the plant growing in Yukon Territory, but these were based on misidentified specimens.

Astragalus plattensis, the Platte River milkvetch, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, native to North America. It was named in 1838. Its range includes the Great Plains of the United States, from southern Montana and North Dakota south to central Texas.

<i>Penstemon albidus</i> Species of flowering plant

Penstemon albidus, commonly known as white penstemon, white-flower beardtongue, or Red-Line Beardtongue is a very widespread perennial flower of the mixed-grass and shortgrass prairies. Its natural distribution is from Manitoba and Alberta in Canada to Texas and New Mexico in the United States. The bright white flowers for which they are named are quite attractive to both bees and hummingbird moths.

References

  1. Contu, S. (2012). "Astragalus crassicarpus". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 208. IUCN. e.T19035773A78457022. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T19891488A20011898.en .
  2. NatureServe (2024). "Astragalus crassicarpus". Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Astragalus crassicarpus Nutt". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanical Gardens Kew. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  4. "Astragalus crassicarpus Nutt". ipni.org. International Plant Names Index. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  5. 1 2 USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Astragalus crassicarpus". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kindscher, Kelly (1987). Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie . University Press of Kansas. pp.  61–63. ISBN   0700603255.
  7. 1 2 Bachmann, Amanda (June 16, 2016). "South Dakota Plants to Know: Astragalus crassicarpus". iGrow. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  8. Nowick, Elaine (2014). Historical common names of Great Plains plants, with scientific names index. ISBN   9781609620585.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Monographs Details: Astragalus plattensis Nutt. ex Torr. & A.Gra". World Flora Online. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  10. 1 2 Wilhelm, Gerould; Rericha, Laura (2017). Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Indiana Academy of Sciences.
  11. Barr, Claude A. (1983). Jewels of the plains : wild flowers of the Great Plains grasslands and hills. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN   0-8166-1127-0.
  12. 1 2 Bulletin, Issues 1-6. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1895. p. 11.
  13. Haddock, Mike (September 7, 2007). "Ground-Plum Milk-Vetch". Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses. Kansas State University. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  14. "Astragalus crassicarpus". Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center. Retrieved December 9, 2018.