Astragalus (plant)
genus of plants
Astragalus is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names include milkvetch (most species), locoweed (in North America, some species) and goat's-thorn (A. gummifer, A. tragacantha). Some pale-flowered vetches (Vicia spp.) are similar in appearance, but they are more vine-like than Astragalus.
Description
Most species in the genus have pinnately compound leaves. There are annual and perennial species. The flowers are formed in clusters in a raceme, each flower typical of the legume family, with three types of petals: banner, wings, and keel. The calyx is tubular or bell-shaped.
Taxonomy
The genus was formally described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum.
“Astragalus (plant)” enters the record as genus of plants. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Astragalus, plant and genus can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Astragalus (plant)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Astragalus, plant and genus provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q157184. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1753.
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This entry incorporates text from “Astragalus (plant)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.