Bear Valley milkvetch is a silky-strigose perennial with open widely-branching stems to 14" long and pinnately compound leaves 1"-2" in length.  Each leaf has some 15-21 obovate and generally crowded leaflets.  The inflorescence is a 5-15-flowered raceme and each flower has a corolla that is white or sometimes blushed with lilac and less than 3/8" long.  The fruit is an inflated papery pod 1/2"-2/4" long, plumply ovoid, with a ± freckled appearance and widely grooved above and below.  The Jepson Manual lists nineteen variants of A. lentiginosus indicating that it is a highly variable species, and intermediate forms are common.  As its name suggests, this is a species of the east San Bernardino Mts, especially of Bear Valley, inhabiting stony meadows and pine woodlands and ranging in elevation from about 5500' to 7500'.  It blooms usually from April to July.  These pictures were taken along the Fish Creek/Aspen Grove Trail.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Astragalus 2) lentiginosus 3) sierrae.
Pronunciation: as-TRAG-a-lus len-tij-in-OH-sus see-AIR-ee
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.