Fabaceae FAMILY

Astragalus hamosus

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

Many members of this genus contain toxic glycosides[ 65 Title A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants. Publication Author Frohne. D. and Pfänder. J. Publisher Wolfe Year 1984 ISBN 0723408394 Description Brilliant. Goes into technical details but in a very readable way. The best work on the subject that I've come across so far. ]. A number of species can accumulate toxic levels of selenium when grown in soils that are relatively rich in that element[ 65 Title A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants. Publication Author Frohne. D. and Pfänder. J. Publisher Wolfe Year 1984 ISBN 0723408394 Description Brilliant. Goes into technical details but in a very readable way. The best work on the subject that I've come across so far. ]. All species with edible seedpods can be distinguished by their fleshy round or oval seedpod that looks somewhat like a greengage.[ 85 Title Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains. Publication Author Harrington. H. D. Publisher University of New Mexico Press Year 1967 ISBN 0-8623-0343-9 Description A superb book. Very readable, it gives the results of the authors experiments with native edible plants. ]

Botanical Description

Astragalus hamosus is an erect to prostrate annual plant growing up to 55cm tall. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and a medicine. It has occasionally been cultivated as a novelty for its caterpillar-shaped seedpods[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ].

Habitat & Origin

Origintemperate

Native RangeMacaronesia, throughout the Mediterranean to the Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Arabian Peninsula

HabitatDry grassland[ 45 Title Flowers of Greece and the Balkans. Publication Author Polunin. O. Publisher Oxford University Press Year 1980 ISBN 0-19-217626-9 Description A good pocket flora, it also lists quite a few plant uses. ]. Semidesert areas in foothills and the low montane belt, on clay, loess, sand and rock debris[ 261 Title Legumes of Northern Eurasia Publication Author Yakovlev. G. Sytin. A. & Roskov. Yu. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Year 1996 ISBN 0-947643-97-4 Description For the academic only, a list of species growing in N. Eurasia with terse details on habitat, range, uses etc. ].