Astragalus falcatus

Astragalus falcatus
	Astragalus falcatus at Akureyri Botanical Garden
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Genus:	Astragalus
Species:	A. falcatus
Binomial name
	Astragalus falcatus; Lam.

Astragalus falcatus is a species of milkvetch known by the common names Russian milkvetch, sickle milkvetch, sicklepod milkvetch, and silverleaf milkvetch. It is a flowering plant found primarily in meadows and grasslands and sometimes in open woodlands.

Description

The plant has pure yellow, light yellow or creamy yellow flowers, sometimes tinged with purple. It grows 40 to 80 cm high with leaves 10 to 16 cm long which have between 8 and 20 pairs of narrow leaflets.

Uses

A. falcatus has been cultivated experimentally for dryland grazing in the US and possibly in France, and was proposed as a forage crop in the USSR.[1] However, it is one of the milkweeds containing a poisonous glycoside identified as miserotoxin.[2]

References

Mansfeld's Encyclopedia of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: (Except Ornamentals), ed. Peter Hanelt, Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, with contributions by R. Büttner et al., 2nd ed. 1986, trans. ed. Berlin/New York: Springer, 2001, ISBN 9783540410171, p. 797.
Delena Tull, Edible and Useful Plants of the Southwest: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Austin: University of Texas, 2013, ISBN 9780292748279, n.p.

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[1] Mansfeld's Encyclopedia of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: (Except Ornamentals), ed. Peter Hanelt, Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, with contributions by R. Büttner et al., 2nd ed. 1986, trans. ed. Berlin/New York: Springer, 2001, ISBN 9783540410171, p. 797.

[2] Delena Tull, Edible and Useful Plants of the Southwest: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Austin: University of Texas, 2013, ISBN 9780292748279, n.p.