Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Canada Milkvetch
Astragalus canadensis L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Pea (Leguminosae)
Flowering: May-August
Field Marks: This species is distinguished by its pinnately compound leaves with 15-35 leaflets and by its greenish white to yellowish flowers 3/4-1 inch long. The terete pods are 1/2-3/4 inch long.
Habitat: Along rivers and streams, moist prairies, open woods: also on dry bluffs.
Habit: Perennial herb with rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, usually branched, up to 3 feet tall, with appressed hairs.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with 15-35 leaflets; leaflets lanceolate to ovate to elliptic, up to 1 3/4 inches long, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, without teeth, appressed-hairy.
Flowers: Several borne in dense racemes, the racemes up to 8 inches long, the teeth 1/24-1/6 inch long, smooth or sparsely hairy.
Sepals: 5, green, united below to form a tube, the tube 1/6-1/3 inch long, the teeth 1/24-1/6 inch long, smooth or sparsely hairy.
Petals: 5, arranged to form a sweetpea-shaped flower, greenish white to yellowish, 3/4-1 inch long.
Stamens: 10.
Pistils: Ovary superior, usually smooth.
Fruits: Pods terete, 1/2-3/4 inch long, usually smooth, with a slender beak at the tip up to 1/6 inch long; seeds smooth, brown.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/6/astrcana.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:26:10 EST
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