Single Record

Participant Info

Species
Astragalus cerussatus
Family
Fabaceae
CommonName
powdery milkvetch
Presence
YES
Status
native
EarliestDate
1912
LatestDate
2021
Ecosystem
basin, shrubland, foothill, montane, ruderal, urban
Geobotanical
SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, LBasin
Counties
Conejos, Costilla, Rio Grande, Saguache
Passes
WildlifePreserves
Hot Creek
Other Localities
Del Norte
Comments
Powdery milkvetch is fairly common in the foothills and lower montane on the west side of the Valley. The Lower Basin records of Astragalus cerussatus come from around the San Luis Hills. It is a "rare" native plant that likes the center of hiking trails in foothill rocky terrain. In one instance, a plant has reseeded itself for 8 years in an urban gravel driveway of Del Norte (Rio Grande Co, 2015-2023). The mottled seeds of this plant sometimes have a light-colored tip that looks like an elaiosome, although there are no observations of elaiosomes in Astragalus. A. cerussatus would be endemic to Colorado except for a few collections from Taos and Rio Arriba counties in New Mexico.