Mountain lentil

Astragalus penduliflorus, the mountain lentil or pendulous-flowered milkvetch, is a perennial herb in the legume family (Fabaceae) of subarctic and alpine distribution, ranging across the mountains of southern and central Europe (the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Apennines) and extending in disjunct populations through northern Europe, Siberia, and the boreal mountains of Asia. Plants grow 20 to 60 centimeters tall from a stout woody rootstock, with erect or ascending, finely appressed-pubescent stems. The leaves are odd-pinnate, 5 to 12 centimeters long, with 9 to 15 pairs of elliptical to oblong leaflets 1 to 2 centimeters long, green above and lightly hairy beneath. The inflorescences are dense axillary racemes raised above the foliage on long peduncles; each raceme bears numerous pale to bright yellow papilionaceous flowers 13 to 18 millimeters long that hang downwards at anthesis, giving the species its specific epithet penduliflorus. The fruit is an oblong, somewhat inflated, two-celled legume pod 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long, glabrous or sparsely hairy, ripening to brown. The species grows in subalpine and alpine meadows, open larch and pine woodland, and on stony slopes between about 1,200 and 2,400 meters elevation.