Astragalus australis

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Indian milkvetch
Astragalus.australis1.JPG
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
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. australis
Binomial name
Astragalus australis
(L.) Lam.
Synonyms

Astragalus aboriginum
Astragalus forwoodii
Astragalus linearis
Astragalus richardsonii
Astragalus scrupulicola

Contents

Astragalus australis is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Indian milkvetch. It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere, including northern North America, Europe, and temperate Asia. [1]

Description

This plant produces spreading and erect stems up to 25 centimeters tall from a caudex. The stems have a dense coat of hairs and have leaves alternately arranged. Each leaf is up to 3 to 4 centimeters long and is made up of leaflets measuring a few millimeters in length. The leaflets are covered in ashy gray hairs. The inflorescence is a raceme of up to 15 flowers with petals that are greenish, white, purplish, or pinkish with green veins and purple tips. The fruit is a hairless legume pod that matures deep red in color and measures up to 2.6 centimeters in length. It contains up to 12 seeds. [2] [3]

Ecology

This plant grows as far north as Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It grows at the seaside, often on gravelly ridges. [2]

This plant was used for food by the Cree and Stone peoples of North America. [2]

Varieties of this plant include the rare var. olympicus, Cotton's milkvetch, which is endemic to the Olympic Mountains of Washington in the United States. [4] It grows on subalpine mountain ridges with sparse vegetation. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Astragalus alpinus</i> Species of legume

Astragalus alpinus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name alpine milkvetch. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

Astragalus anxius is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common names troubled milkvetch and Ash Valley milkvetch. It is endemic to northern Lassen County, California, where it is critically imperiled. It was formally described in 1992.

<i>Astragalus jaegerianus</i> Species of legume

Astragalus jaegerianus is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common name Lane Mountain milkvetch. The plant was named for the biologist Edmund Jaeger, who first documented it in 1939.

<i>Astragalus kentrophyta</i> Species of legume

Astragalus kentrophyta is a species of milkvetch known by the common name spiny milkvetch. It is native to western North America from central to west Canada, to California, to New Mexico. It grows in rocky mountainous areas, such as the Sierra Nevada, and on plateaus.

<i>Astragalus layneae</i> Species of legume

Astragalus layneae is a species of milkvetch known by the common name widow's milkvetch. It is native to the Mojave Desert and surrounding mountain ridges in California and Nevada.

<i>Astragalus lentiformis</i> Species of legume

Astragalus lentiformis is a species of milkvetch known by the common name lens-pod milkvetch. It is endemic to the Sierra Nevada in eastern Plumas County, California, where it grows in chaparral scrub and coniferous forests.

<i>Astragalus nuttallii</i> Species of legume

Astragalus nuttallii is a species of milkvetch known by the common name Nuttall's milkvetch. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in the sandy soils of coastal habitat. This is a perennial herb forming thick, tangled clumps of hairy to hairless stems up to a meter in length. The abundant leaves are up to 17 centimeters in length and made up of many oval-shaped leaflets. The inflorescence is a large, dense body of up to 125 flowers, each around 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The flowers are dull cream-colored and sometimes purple-tinted. The fruit is an inflated legume pod up to 6 centimeters long which dries to a papery texture and contains many seeds in its single chamber. One variety of this species, the ocean bluff milkvetch is endemic to the Central Coast of California.

<i>Astragalus oocarpus</i> Species of legume

Astragalus oocarpus is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common names San Diego milkvetch and Descanso milkvetch.

<i>Astragalus purshii</i> Species of legume

Astragalus purshii is a species of milkvetch known by the common names woollypod milkvetch and Pursh's milkvetch.

<i>Astragalus pycnostachyus</i> Species of aquatic plant

Astragalus pycnostachyus is a species of milkvetch known by the common name marsh milkvetch. It is endemic to the coastline of California, where it grows in wet saline habitat such as marshes.

Astragalus subvestitus is a species of milkvetch known by the common name Kern County milkvetch.

<i>Astragalus limnocharis <span style="font-style:normal;">var.</span> montii</i> Subspecies of legume

Astragalus limnocharis var. montii, synonym Astragalus montii, is a rare variety of flowering plant in the legume family. It is known by the common name Monti's milkvetch. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where there are only three known populations. Under the synonym A. montii, it is a federally listed threatened species of the United States.

<i>Oxytropis podocarpa</i> Species of flowering plant

Oxytropis podocarpa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names stalkpod locoweed, stalked-pod crazyweed, and Gray's point-vetch. It is native to North America, where it occurs in the northern latitudes, from Yukon and British Columbia across the low arctic to northern Quebec and Labrador. In the Rocky Mountains it occurs at the higher elevations as far south as Colorado.

<i>Astragalus barrii</i> Species of legume

Astragalus barrii is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Barr's milkvetch. It is native to the United States, where it is a "regional endemic", occurring in parts of southwestern South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming, southeastern Montana, and Nebraska.

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.

Astragalus leptaleus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name park milkvetch. It is native to the Rocky Mountains of the United States, where it occurs in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.

<i>Astragalus molybdenus</i> Species of legume

Astragalus molybdenus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names Leadville milkvetch and molybdenum milkvetch. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States. If the separate species Astragalus shultziorum and Astragalus lackschewitzii are included in A. molybdenum the range expands into Wyoming and Montana.

Astragalus proximus is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Aztec milkvetch. It is native to southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States.

Astragalus wetherillii is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Wetherill's milkvetch. It is native to Colorado and Utah in the United States.

<i>Astragalus lentiginosus <span style="font-style:normal;">var.</span> iodanthus</i> Species of legume

Astragalus lentiginosus var. iodanthus, synonym Astragalus iodanthus, is a variety of Astragalus lentiginosus, a flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is known by the common names Humboldt River milkvetch and violet milkvetch. It is native to the western United States, where its range includes California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. It grows on hills and in valleys in barren sandy and volcanic soils in habitat such as sagebrush.

References

  1. "Astragalus australis". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 25 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Gillett, J. M., et al. (1999 onwards). Astragalus australis. Archived 13 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine Fabaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 15 November 2000
  3. "USDA Plants Database".
  4. var. olympicus. Archived 26 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine Center for Plant Conservation.
  5. Kaye, T. N. (1999). From flowering to dispersal: reproductive ecology of an endemic plant, Astragalus australis var. olympicus (Fabaceae). Am J Bot 86 1248–56.