Hedysarum alpinumL.

alpine sweetvetch

WFO wfo-0000213780 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. a Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-21 / obs. 152503581
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Syd Cannings
fig. b Syd Cannings, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152503190
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Todd Boland
fig. c Todd Boland, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150232783
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. d Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 165232145
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. e Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164635924
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. f Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160977871
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. g Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160961337
Hedysarum alpinum, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. h Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160963555

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 51 botanical countries

Regions where Hedysarum alpinum is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaTibetTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaIndiaPakistanWest HimalayaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaNorth European RussiaSouth European RussiaAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaLabradorMaineManitobaMichiganMontanaNebraskaNew BrunswickNew HampshireNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaVermontWyomingYukon KoreaRhode I.
Native distribution of Hedysarum alpinum, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Michigan MIC
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Vermont VER
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
North European Russia RUN
South European Russia RUS
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 330 in flower of 378 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Hedysarum alpinum 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. 330 of 378 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 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 2,000 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -27.4 °C -16.7 °C -11.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 13.5 °C 20.8 °C 23.9 °C
Annual rainfall 355 mm 549 mm 1,107 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 59 mm 199 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,000 research-grade observations of Hedysarum alpinum 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 33 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 mistassinicus J.Rousseau
  • Banalia alpina (L.) Bubani
  • Echinolobium alpinum (L.) Desv.
  • Hedysarum alpinum f. albiflorum (Standl.) Cody
  • Hedysarum alpinum lus. leiocarpum (Basiner) B.Fedtsch.
  • Hedysarum alpinum lus. trichocarpum (Basiner) B.Fedtsch.
  • Hedysarum alpinum subsp. americanum (Michx. ex Pursh) B.Fedtsch.
  • Hedysarum alpinum subsp. boreoeuropaeum Jurtzev
  • Hedysarum alpinum subsp. philoscia (A.Nelson) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. alpinum
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. americanum Michx. ex Pursh
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. chinense B.Fedtsch.
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. grandiflorum Rollins
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. philoscia (A.Nelson) Rollins
  • Hedysarum alpinum var. sibiricum B.Fedtsch.
  • Hedysarum americanum (Michx. ex Pursh) Britton
  • Hedysarum americanum f. albiflorum Standl.
  • Hedysarum americanum subsp. philoscium (A.Nelson) Jurtzev
  • Hedysarum auriculatum Eastw.
  • Hedysarum chinense (B.Fedtsch.) Hand.-Mazz.
  • Hedysarum edule Stephan ex Glehn
  • Hedysarum elongatum Fisch. ex Spach
  • Hedysarum elongatum Fisch. ex G.Lodd.
  • Hedysarum elongatum Basiner

and 9 more.

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.