Astragalus gummifer
Astragalus gummifer
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 gummifer is a low-growing, thorny, deciduous shrub with spreading branches. This plant is one of the many species of Astragalus that produce tragacanth gum - a substance with many uses in medicine, as a food additive and in industry. This species was often believed to be the main source of Tragacanth gum, but other species such as Astragalus gossypinus and Astragalus microcephalus are superior in quality and quantity[ 1086 Title Systematic revision of Astragalus sect. Adiaspastus, sect. Macrophyllium and sect. Pterophorus (Fabaceae) Publication Englera 18 Author Shahin Zarre-Mobarakeh Website http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de Publisher Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Germany Year 2000 ISBN 3-921800-42-0 Description An extensive revision of three gum-producing sections of the genus Astragalus, though it does not include section Rhacophorus, which is the main commercial producer of Gum Tragacanth ].