Newberry's milkvetch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Newberry's milkvetch |
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| Astragalus newberryi castoreus | |
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The Newberry's milkvetch (scientific name: Astragalus newberryi) is a beautiful flowering plant. It belongs to the Fabaceae family, which is also known as the pea family. This plant grows naturally in the western parts of the United States. You can find it from Idaho all the way down to New Mexico and California.
A special type of Newberry's milkvetch lives in the Death Valley area. It also grows in the eastern part of the Mojave Desert in California and Nevada. This plant likes to grow in rocky and gravelly places. It prefers higher elevations, usually between 1,300 and 2,350 meters (about 4,265 to 7,710 feet) above sea level.
What Does It Look Like?
The Newberry's milkvetch is a perennial plant. This means it lives for many years, not just one season. It is also a herbaceous plant, which means it has soft stems instead of woody ones like a tree.
Its leaves are quite interesting. They are called pinnate leaves, which means they have many small leaflets arranged like a feather. Each leaf can be from 1.5 to 15 centimeters (about 0.6 to 6 inches) long. On each leaf, you will find 3 to 15 smaller leaflets. Each of these tiny leaflets is about 5 to 20 millimeters (about 0.2 to 0.8 inches) long.
The flowers of the Newberry's milkvetch are a lovely pink-purple color. You can usually see them blooming between April and June. After the flowers, the plant produces a fruit. This fruit is a pod, similar to a pea pod. Each pod is about 13 to 28 millimeters (about 0.5 to 1.1 inches) long. Inside each pod, there is usually just one seed.
