Montpellier milkvetch
Astragalus monspessulanus
Family · Fabaceae · Irritating
The rosette legume that opens a posy of purple or pink flowers almost at ground level, in limestone mountain meadows. The pods are long and curved like small sickles.
Uplands · Fields and pasture · Scrubland
Also known asfalse vetch
How to tell it
No apparent stem: all the leaves rise from the base, made of twenty to forty small paired leaflets. The flowers come in a dense umbel atop a stalk rising from the ground, purple, pink or rarely cream. The pods are long, curved and grooved, lying on the ground. Range: mainly a Spanish plant, practically absent from Portugal.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. A genus warning applies: several Astragalus accumulate selenium and alkaloids and cause severe livestock poisonings worldwide, under the name locoweed. It is not a plant to taste.