Astragalus canadensisL.

Canadian milkvetch

WFO wfo-0000168919 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Becca
fig. a Becca, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-13 / obs. 175879236
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Becca
fig. b Becca, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174050775
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Becca
fig. c Becca, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174050713
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. d Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164150604
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Ethan Rose
fig. e Ethan Rose, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142042750
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. f Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142026911
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Bob
fig. g Bob, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140260130
Astragalus canadensis, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. h Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 138912144

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 48 botanical countries

Regions where Astragalus canadensis is native: Alabama, Alberta, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Manitoba, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlabamaAlbertaArkansasBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutGeorgiaIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaManitobaMarylandMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesOhioOklahomaOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Astragalus canadensis, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Georgia GEO
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Jersey NWJ
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

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.

Flowering 190 in flower of 282 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Astragalus canadensis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 190 of 282 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,009 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.3 °C -10.6 °C -3.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.3 °C 27.6 °C 31.1 °C
Annual rainfall 431 mm 887 mm 1,185 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 36 mm 100 mm 235 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,009 research-grade observations of Astragalus canadensis 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 22 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 brevidens (Gand.) Rydb.
  • Astragalus canadensis f. monticola Gand.
  • Astragalus canadensis f. rydbergii Gand.
  • Astragalus canadensis var. carolinianus (L.) M.E.Jones
  • Astragalus canadensis var. longilobus Fassett
  • Astragalus carolinianus L.
  • Astragalus colinianus L.
  • Astragalus halei Rydb.
  • Astragalus mortonii Nutt.
  • Astragalus mortonii f. brevidens Gand.
  • Astragalus mortonii f. rydbergii Gand.
  • Astragalus oreophilus Rydb.
  • Astragalus orthocarpus Douglas ex A.Gray
  • Astragalus torreyi Rydb.
  • Astragalus tristis Nutt.
  • Lotodes multijugum (Elliott) Kuntze
  • Phaca canadensis (L.) MacMill.
  • Phaca mortonii (Nutt.) Piper
  • Psoralea multijuga Elliott
  • Solenotus canadensis (L.) Steven
  • Tragacantha canadensis (L.) Kuntze
  • Tragacantha mortonii (Nutt.) 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.