Astragalus arenariusL.

Arenarious Milk-vetch

WFO wfo-0000213533 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Tomas Pocius
fig. a Tomas Pocius, CC0 1.0 / 2020-06-16 / obs. 107749226
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. b Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 47648793
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. c Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 47615090
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. d Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 41841776
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Radosław Puchałka
fig. e Radosław Puchałka, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150122081
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Nadezhda Kiseleva
fig. f Nadezhda Kiseleva, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162208766
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Dmitry Semigradsky
fig. g Dmitry Semigradsky, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203169495
Astragalus arenarius, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. h Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84332283

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 14 botanical countries

Regions where Astragalus arenarius is native: Baltic States, Belarus, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, Germany, Hungary, Krym, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Poland, South European Russia, Sweden, Ukraine Baltic StatesBelarusCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaGermanyHungaryKrymNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaPolandSouth European RussiaSwedenUkraine
Native distribution of Astragalus arenarius, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Baltic States BLT EUROPE
Belarus BLR
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Krym KRY
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Poland POL
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE
Ukraine UKR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 505 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.9 °C -10.7 °C -2.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.1 °C 23.3 °C 24.1 °C
Annual rainfall 516 mm 657 mm 774 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 88 mm 105 mm 130 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 505 research-grade observations of Astragalus arenarius that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 9 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Astragalus arenarius f. linearis Stank.
  • Astragalus arenarius var. glabrescens Rchb.
  • Astragalus arenarius var. marusiensis Fuss
  • Astragalus arenarius var. sabulosus Bluff, Nees & Schauer
  • Astragalus arenarius var. sylvaticus Bluff, Nees & Schauer
  • Astragalus marusiensis Lerchenf. ex Schur
  • Kirchnera arenaria (L.) Opiz
  • Philammos arenarius (L.) Steven
  • Tragacantha arenaria (L.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.