Astragalus racemosus (Racemose Milk-Vetch) - photos and description
Origin: Native.
General: Bushy plant with a spreading growth habit and reddish, pubescent stems.
Flowers: Flowers in dense spikes, spikes measured 5 to 8 cm long. Colour is creamy-white to pale yellow, flower measured to 18 mm long, pendant, lower flowers spreading. Pods are triangular in profile.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, pinnate, leaflets oblanceolate, we counted up to 25 leaflets, a large leaflet measured at 25 cm long and 9 mm wide (pressed flat). The bottoms of leaflets and margins pubescent, the tops of leaflets are glabrous.
Height: Dry slopes and hills in southern Saskatchewan.
Habitat: Height is listed in Budd's Flora to 60 cm, we measured plants to 36 cm tall.
Abundance: Very rare, listed as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Centre.
When and where photographed: The above photos were taken June 17th and June 26th, clay flats and hillsides, The Dirt Hills, about 80 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.