Astragalus echidnaeformis
Astragalus echidnaeformis
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 echidnaeformis is a low-growing, thorny, deciduous shrub with densely branched stems; it forms a loose, spiny cushion 10 - 30cm tall This plant is one of the main species of Astragalus that produce tragacanth gum - a substance with many uses in medicine, as a food additive and in industry[ 1088 Title Determination of the Tragacanth gum production potential of white Astragalus (Astragalus gossypinus) in western rang Publication Author Habib Yazdanshenas & Mina Jafari Website https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277438364 Publisher Year 2014 ISBN Description Studying the potential yields of Tragacanth gum from Astragalus gossypinus ]. The gum is harvested from the wild and traded worldwide.