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Fabaceae
Alpine Milk Vetch
Astragalus alpinus
Nourishment and care.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Genus
- Astragalus
- Native to
- Arctic and Alpine regions of Europe, Asia, North America
- Bloom season
- Summer
- Type
- perennial herb
- Height
- 0.25-0.75 ft
- Sunlight
- full sun
- Soil
- Well-drained, gravelly soil
- Water
- low
- Hardiness
- 2-6
- Lifespan
- perennial
Did you know
- Astragalus is the largest genus of flowering plants with over 3,000 species, and Alpine Milk Vetch is among the hardiest.
- The common name 'milk vetch' comes from the old belief that goats eating these plants would produce more milk.
- Like other legumes, it hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules, fertilizing the nutrient-poor alpine soils it inhabits.
- The small pea-like flowers are arranged in dense racemes that nod gracefully in mountain breezes.
- It has a circumboreal distribution, meaning it is found in arctic and alpine habitats all the way around the Northern Hemisphere.
Color meanings
0
sustenance
1
protective nurture