A perennial legume native to temperate Asia, grown mainly for its medicinal roots (huangqi, Radix Astragali) in traditional Chinese and Mongolian medicine. It is a field and garden herb rather than a common houseplant, and it needs full sun and well-drained soil.
Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water moderately while establishing, then let it rely mostly on rain; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or loamy soil; tolerates poor, dry soils.
Temperature
Hardy in cold temperate climates; tolerates winter frost well.
How easy
Moderate
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Siberia to Russian Far East and W. & N. China
Climate
temperate
About
Astragalus mongholicus, commonly known as Mongolian milkvetch in English; 'Хунчир' in Mongolian; huángqí (Chinese: 黃芪), běiqí (Chinese: 北芪) or huánghuā huángqí (Chinese: 黃花黃耆), in Mongolia, is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Mongolian medicine. It is a perennial plant and it is not listed as being threatened.
Safety
Chemical constituents of the roots (Radix Astragali) include polysaccharides and triterpenoids (such as astragalosides), as well as isoflavones (including kumatakenin, calycosin, and formononetin) and their glycosides and malonates. It contains the saponin cycloastragenol.
Where it grows
A. mongholicus is widespread in temperate Asia, being found in Kazakhstan, from Siberia to the Russian Far East, in Mongolia, and in west and north China.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Astragalus mongholicus 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.