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Plant Profile

San Diego Milkvetch (Astragalus oocarpus)

William Heise County Park Photo Credit: Joe Davitt

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Fabaceae
State: CA
Nature Serve ID: 144274
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 10/29/2018

Description:

Astragalus oocarpus produces upright to erect hollow stems up to 1.3 meters tall with leaves are up to 17 centimeters long and are made up of veiny lance-shaped leaflets up to 3 centimeters long. The stem and leaves are mostly hairless. The inflorescence holds up to 75 cream-colored flowers, each between 1 and 2 centimeters in length and blooms May to August. The fruit is an inflated legume pod 1. 5 to 2. 5 centimeters long which dries to a stiff papery texture (Calscape).

Where is San Diego Milkvetch (Astragalus oocarpus) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Astragalus oocarpus occurs in the openings of Chaparral habitat and Cismontane woodland. Elevation range for this plant is between 1000 to 5000 feet (Calflora)

Distribution:

Endemic to California, Astragalus oocarpus occurs in the interior of San Diego County, from Julian/Palomar to Descanso (NatureServe 2018).

States & Provinces:

San Diego Milkvetch can be found in California

Which CPC Partners conserve San Diego Milkvetch (Astragalus oocarpus)?

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 01/12/19

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

10/02/2020

in 2018, SDZG collected seed from one population and 86 maternal lines of Astragalus oocarpus in San Diego County from William Heise County Park, south of Julian. This seed will be used for research and future species recovery projects.

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, San Diego Zoo Global holds 2 accessions of Astragalus oocarpus in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 2279 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

09/01/2020

Based on an September 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden holds 2 accessions of Astragalus oocarpus in orthodox seed collection. There are as many as 1067 seeds of this species in their collection - although some may have been used for curation testing or sent to back up.

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, California Botanic Garden has collected 2 seed accessions of Astragalus oocarpus from 2 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass 52 maternal plants

08/05/2020

Based on an August 2020 extract of the California Plant Rescue Database, San Diego Zoo Global has collected 2 seed accessions of Astragalus oocarpus from 2 plant occurrences listed in the California Natural Diversity Database. These collections together emcompass 132 maternal plants

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

Astragalus oocarpus is endemic to San Diego County, California with 56 total known historical occurrences, however, the majority of these occurrence are most likely extripated (NatureServe 2018).

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

Threats to the species include development, road maintenance and recreational activity (CNPS 2001, CNDDB 2017)

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

It is important to ensure the entirety of the species genetic diversity is conserved ex-situ. Multiple high quality seed collections in long term storage and/or living collections should be made.

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

Research into the best methods of reintroducing the species to the wild is needed.

Emily Burson

01/25/2019

At this time, germination testing of the seed collections made by SDZG and related research is ongoing.