Montpellier milkvetch

Astragalus monspessulanus, the Montpellier milkvetch, is a low perennial herb in the family Fabaceae, native to southern and central Europe and the northern Mediterranean basin. Plants form a basal rosette of pinnately compound leaves arising from a stout taproot and woody caudex; each leaf bears 11-31 oblong-elliptic leaflets that are silky-pubescent beneath. Flowering stems are short or essentially absent, with the inflorescence held just above the foliage as a dense one-sided raceme of 10-25 pea-shaped flowers ranging from purple to pink-violet, occasionally pale yellow. Each flower is approximately 18-25 mm long with a long calyx tube. The fruit is a curved, more or less cylindrical legume 25-40 mm long, pubescent and somewhat fleshy when young, containing several seeds. The species inhabits dry calcareous grasslands, stony slopes, garrigues, and open pine and oak woodlands from sea level to roughly 2000 m elevation, occurring from Spain and France across to the Balkans and Turkey. Several intergrading subspecies are recognized across this range.