Astragalus exscapusL.

WFO wfo-0000212493 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. a Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-18 / obs. 42344379
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. b Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 41412130
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Karsten Rohweder
fig. c Karsten Rohweder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61659527
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Karsten Rohweder
fig. d Karsten Rohweder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61659508
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by anneleen_kool
fig. e anneleen_kool, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198571381
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Alessia Guggisberg
fig. f Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204943987
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Angelika Baumann
fig. g Angelika Baumann, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194278035
Astragalus exscapus, photographed by Alessia Guggisberg
fig. h Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204944002

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 19 botanical countries

Regions where Astragalus exscapus is native: North Caucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine North CaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Astragalus exscapus, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
North Caucasus NCS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM

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 255 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.5 °C -4.0 °C -2.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.8 °C 24.7 °C 27.3 °C
Annual rainfall 523 mm 568 mm 1,251 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 81 mm 96 mm 244 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 255 research-grade observations of Astragalus exscapus 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 21 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.

  • Astragaloides syphilitica Moench
  • Astragalus angustiflorus subsp. hellenicus (Boiss.) Ponert
  • Astragalus exscapus f. caulifer Borbás
  • Astragalus exscapus f. scaposus Beck
  • Astragalus exscapus prol. transsilvanicus (Janka) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Astragalus exscapus var. caulescens Velen.
  • Astragalus exscapus var. leiocarpus (Shuttlew.) Jaccard
  • Astragalus exscapus var. puskarovii Urum. & Jáv.
  • Astragalus exscapus var. transsilvanicus (Janka) Gams
  • Astragalus hellenicus Boiss.
  • Astragalus leiocarpus Shuttlew.
  • Astragalus odessianus Prodan
  • Astragalus pubiflorus DC.
  • Astragalus pubigerus Pall. ex Trautv.
  • Astragalus syphilitica Moench
  • Astragalus transsilvanicus Janka
  • Myobroma exscapa (L.) Steven
  • Myobroma pubiflora (DC.) Steven
  • Tragacantha exscapa (L.) Kuntze
  • Tragacantha hellenica (Boiss.) Kuntze
  • Tragacantha pubiflora (DC.) 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. 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.