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Astragalus lentiginosus
Also called Mottled Milkvetch, Speckledpod Milkvetch
Freckled milkvetch is a low, wild legume of western North American deserts and disturbed dry sites, grown mainly for its pea-like flowers and mottled pods. It is not cultivated commercially, so it is best left in the wild or grown from local seed.
Astragalus lentiginosus is a species of legume native to western North America where it grows in a range of habitats. Common names include spotted locoweed and freckled milkvetch. There are a great number of wild varieties. The flower and the fruit of an individual plant are generally needed to identify the specific variety.
Astragalus lentiginosus is currently not cultivated commercially. Propagation from seed requires scarification of the seed coat in order for the embryo to absorb water.
As a species, Astragalus lentiginosus is distributed throughout the Great Basin of North America, west from the Rocky Mountains to the California Coast Ranges, south to Mexico, and north to British Columbia. Varieties are largely limited to marginal habitats such as disturbed sites in the arid regions of the continent. The group also contains a number of edaphic specialists which occur at desert seeps, which frequently exhibit high levels of calcium carbonate.
The Zuni people eat the pods of the diphysus variety fresh, boiled, or salted. They are also dried and stored for winter use.
Chickpea milkvetch · Groundplum milkvetch · Yellow Alpine Milkvetch · Licorice milkvetch · Gum tragacanth milkvetch · Mongolian Milkvetch · Woollypod milkvetch · Marsh milkvetch · Cream milkvetch · Astragalus sarcocolla · Chinese milk-vetch · Milkvetch
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Astragalus lentiginosus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
